A Different View

So, I can't remember how I ended up on this picture, I think that Busted Knuckles had something to do with it somehow.  But the original article that I read, and the link that it sent me to, got me to thinking.  


There is also a doctored second photo as well.

All of this ties in with the theme that I have been developing of late.  The country is turning more and more into a pressure cooker.   Now, I am not squawking at these troops, they have the God given right to their own opinion and the equally God given right granted to a gaggle of E3's and E4's to jump to the wrong conclusions and not see the big picture.  Damn good kids probably.


What kind of bothers me is the comments between the blog author and a demi-troll in the comment section at the end of the pickyourbattles piece.  I have no doubt that both parties display points of view that reflect big swathes of the thought in the US military.   The point I am trying to make is that the military is going to be a player in the dénouement.


I would guess that there is quite a bit of steam being generated in mess halls of late.  We are demobilizing and getting troops back home.  We are also in the throes of one of the worst economic downturns in our nations history, so the amount of money going into the military and the troops will be decreasing.  We have generated a fairly separate military caste that will be getting screwed pretty soon. 


Now, something similar has happened in the past.  We went through the same thing at the end of Vietnam.  The cost of the Vietnam war and the ruthless vote buying of the Great Society led to a precipitous loss of revenues and power to the military complex.     


The difference this time is the way that the hoi polloi think of the military.  The end of Vietnam had a country that thought the troops were drugged-out baby killers and were not in any mood to brook any nonsense.  The Generals were cowed and disgraced.  The military pretty much slunk back to its bases and licked their wounds.


This war is really different.  All the troops are "heroes".  The Generals have ruthlessly exploited the docile media to paint this as a win and themselves as the current reincarnation of Scipio fucking Africanus.  The military is in a completely different space this time.


Things are going to get interesting.   I have no opinion right or wrong on this one.  Just sayin'