Why do people criticize the military as a whole?

Question

I'm not against criticizing military practices or failures, but criticizing the premise of the military as a whole is idiotic.

Neo-hippies love to criticize the military and fantasize getting rid of it, but they should pragmatically think of what would happen to our country without a strong military in our history. During the War of 1812 we would have been taken over by the British, and lived in a monarchy.

In 1946 we would have been taken over by the Fascists and become slaves to their economies.

From 1950-2000, Russia would have taken us over and we would have become the slaves to their Communist economy.

Today, if we all of a sudden lost our military we wouldn't have our sovereignty. We would be fodder to the interests of military and economic powers like Russia, China, and others.

The military protects our sovereignty, which protects our freedoms and liberty. Ironically, these neo-hippies greatly cherish freedom of expression. They can't see the bigger picture.

beardog - actually i've heard this argument and yearning from REAL PEOPLE before.

Underground Man - I'm talking about the concept of the military.

Of course it needs to be reformed and fixed, that is not what I am talking about.

tomjohn - I agree with you actually.
I am not flag waving.

I am not making a statement about the Iraq War - which I actually don't agree with.

However, I support the concept of the military.

A lot of you seem confused. We are both confused - we cannot understand how people can reject the concept of a military - a concept as old as time. But I have actually heard people argue this.

Vermilion - Not even gonna mention the token Christian peacenik.

Answer 1

WHY ? Well, they are blessed with the Freedom of Speach, and we (at least in California) are cursed with a primarily leftist education system

In 1999, while working on my Master's Degree, I used to talk with a real-hippie chick (permanent student) who would cry and rant about the costs of the military and how they were all knuckle-dragging cretins or closet lesbians who didn't have any intelligence or self-motivation.

She was shocked to learn that the long-haired and bearded student she was talking TO was a Reserve United States Naval Officer who had just left active-duty 6 months prior... and then she kept ranting.

Answer 2

It's because the military gave and continues to give them the right to free speech. Not the government. Any group of people can sit down and right a Constitution but without the military to stand up and make it happen it is just another piece of old paper.

Answer 3

Yes. Having a huge, bloated, continually growing military is sooo good for America in every way.

Seems like you can't see the bigger picture. The military eats up a huge chunk of the total national budget that we could be using to improve American infrastructure here at home, provide medical care, fund new technologies and alternative energy, pay off the national debt, etc.

You talk about sovereignty. Don't you really mean imperialistic rule of empire? And why does America want to get involved in something like that? All empires became financially taxed with trying to keep their worldwide holdings under control. Eventually, it leads to the destruction of the whole.

The bigger picture good would be for America to concentrate on improving itself, preparing anti-terrorist units instead of continuing to use tax payer money to make military industrialists rich, and become competetive in terms of industry and tech instead of wasting it's time trying to bully the world through force.

Answer 4

Because neo-hippies are idiots who have the intellects of four year olds with no sense of reality based on the fact that they're living like it's 40 or so years ago...

They're just another little "faction" of the anti-war morons who can't look at the bigger picture and need to dis someone to make themselves feel better about what's supposedly "wrong" in the world...

Answer 5

the only people that i heard deride the military is the cons who tell them to shut and go to iraq several times because they signed a contract. yep, they volunteered, get on the plane and shut up. it's an all volunteer army, isn't it they say. if they get killed nobody made them go, right?

unless you are a veteran, quit waving the flag. you are preaching to the choir.

they deserve to be used wisely, and safely. they deserve to get treatment when they are injured.

Answer 6

I don't think people criticize the military as much as the Commander-in-Chief who tells them where to go and what to do...

Answer 7

I agree completely. Support our military people! They are there to protect your freedom!! Things are not ever, and I mean ever going to be handled by hugging.

Answer 8

They do see the bigger picture.

They see the Christian picture that war is never the right answer to a problem, just the quickest and least imaginative (and most lucrative for Dick Cheney).

Maybe it's you who is missing that big picture.

Answer 9

Which people do that?

This is a fine example of the "Straw Man" type of logical fallacy. You've invented an imaginary opponent with a preposterous argument that you can easily shoot down.

It's like playing chess against yourself, and cheating.

Answer 10

Because people are stupid, they don't like the war or the president and they don't know anyone in the military so they simply declare it all bad without investigating it.