Reply #4: Meh....not worth getting worked up over

[Hobarticus]

The military's a shitty fuckin' life. Terrible pay, lousy home life, and on top of it, you get sent to shitholes to kill or be killed by people you have no personal grudge with.

True, it's a choice they make, sometimes willingly and eagerly, but I for one am glad and personally thankful that they are willing to do it. Which to me, makes their job that much more worthy of respect. Doesn't mean I respect what they're ordered to do, just that they do it. Referring to them as mere "government employees" is pretty disrespectful and obnoxious, in my opinion.

I have several friends, Army and Marine, who have been back and forth already. They love their job but hate this goddamned war. Imagine wrestling with that career agnst.

If a soldier says it and believes it to make what they do for a living worthwhile, then so be it. I know it isn't true, for a myriad of reasons like you listed.

If a soldier's family says it...well, if they believe it, it's no skin off my nose to indulge them that.

If a civilian says it, I just roll my eyes and pity their ignorance of our Constitution.

But I guess I'm not about to tell some private or marine humping three tours in Iraq, while also trying to raise a family on a salary just above the poverty line, that he isn't making sacrifices for me and that he's little more than a government employee, y'know?