I wish I'd written it, but I didn't. Here's the link:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/...
The writer, a Marine in a scout-sniper unit, says something I have heard before from a variety of different sources, but it is an observation I think is worth repeating: a professional military, and the fetishization thereof of its members, encourages a lot of dangerous thinking and widens a perilous cultural gap.
I agree, I don't know what to do sometimes when people thank me for my service. I was in Iraq, from 2004 to 2005. It was, actually, part of my breaking point away from the GOP, my allegiance to which had been fraying faster and faster in the years before that (for the record, my 'final straw that broke the camel's back' moment was the Katrina debacle).
The fetishization of the military creeps me out. I didn't do anything, I mean... not beyond my job, as I saw it. The most important thing I did (in my opinion) was get a squad of guys back home unwounded and without any mental tics; I was nice and respectful to the Iraqis I met and talked a couple people down from moments of hate. The tiny handful of instances where I was involved in shooting & danger weren't as important (although riveting at the time).
But what we do is so utterly alien to so many people, and to think that we're owed applause or ovations... when what we really want is for some leader to say, "I promise we won't send you to get burned up for some foolish nonsense". And mean it.
As it is, labor and combat are borne on the backs of the poor, and those who see no other way out. It is a funnel for the disenfranchised, or those motivated by ideology. An army full of economic slaves and/or ideological devotees is no army of the people, it is a Praetorian Guard, removed psychologically from the people it is supposed to protect.
America would not need the massive army a conscription system would create. It would be expensive to train, equip, and house; but a truly national conscription system (including women) where everyone has a chance to go, where everyone faces the possibility hanging over their head... I think that would be good. Maybe have the ability to opt into other civilian civil-service, either at the local or higher level. EMTs, police, schools, libraries, forestry, whatever...
Of course there'd be cries of "socialism!" but who knows, maybe too many more "solutions" from the "free market" crowd like we've been getting lately and people will stop to take another look at the whole socialism thingy. Well... we can theorize.
Anyhow, the next time you meet a servicemember coming back from war, maybe say "I appreciate your devotion/sacrifice" but maybe also add "I'll do everything I can to elect people who aren't going to spend you like poker chips". Okay, maybe not so blase, but I think you know what I mean.