myth buster@218:
“Dave K.- you asked what the ratio of enlisted to officers is- it’s about 5:1, including all the staff officers like doctors and JAG corps. The job of a soldier or sailor is by no means “cushy,” at least not in the general case. A couple jobs may be cushy, but most entail spending months at a time away from your family in dangerous conditions. I do not begrudge them compensation, both immediate and deferred, nor do I begrudge paying for it, save that I wish they would allow me to join and fight by their side.”

So what’s stopping you?

“When we conservatives speak of the government, the military is typically the implicit, if not explicit exemption to our charges.”

Don’t you think that it’s dishonest to say “The Government is the problem” when you actually mean “The parts of the Government we dislike is the problem?”

“Assholes like you should be grateful that there are men willing to silently patrol the deep, ready to launch nuclear missiles at any nation that should incur our wrath, doing so for months at a time, and contact with one’s family is limited to RECEIVING (not sending) one 50-word telegram a week. Note, communication is one way- your family sends you a short telegram; you can’t reply to it. Sleep soundly tonight, knowing that men far braver than you are ready to do violence on your behalf, to defend your right to disparage them by comparing them to welfare queens.”

Nobody forced them to “defend” me.

They signed up voluntarily and they get paid, directly and indirectly to do their job.

You romanticize and glorify the military way too much.