At the individual level we may have become desensitized to war, but as a nation we have become more sensitive.

The television plays stock footage whenever there's a road-side bomb that kills enough people to make it newsworthy, maybe Yahoo news or the Wall Street Journal adds a witty headline to capture more attention.

In the age of texts, email and the blogosphere, everyone has a voice or somehow feels more closely connected to current unfolding events.
"I have a cousin that wears his Marine Corps uniform on his Facebook page" or "I have veteran Twitter followers that told me what it's really like" or sentiments to that effect.

Somehow the peanut gallery feels validated or legitimate when injecting their opinions now. (Anyone can be a journalist with enough followers it seems)


As for the children of veterans joining and serving the military, they probably learned the common core values of the military from their parents.
It's my opinion that this isn't a bad thing, serving your country is commonly perceived by those serving as a civic duty.

If anything, the shrinking active military population would show that serving in the military is becoming less popular as time moves on.

As for contractors, it's pretty simple... shrink the force and place a greater demand on it, we still need people in support positions. Hire contractors, once the war's over... good bye contractors. It certainly saves money over paying the salary, healthcare, dental and retirement needs of military support personnel.

Most newspapers had weekly lists of Americans killed in Vietnam.

Almost everyone had an opinion. Anti-war sentiment was rife amongst college age kids (potential draftees).

Tricky Dick was elected the second time on his 'secret plan' to end the war. Tricky Dick resigned in 1974 because of a plumbing problem.

Then came the National Guard student killings at Kent State.

After the Vietnam adventure ended, the DoD circled the wagons and figured out a) how to end the draft and b) keep the fresh meat supply line open. Hence the All-Volunteer military.

In 1983 St. Ronnie took the All-Volunteer military out for a spin in Grenada. (Grenada? Really?)

Since you claim "The television plays stock footage whenever there's a road-side bomb that kills enough people to make it newsworthy, maybe Yahoo news or the Wall Street Journal adds a witty headline to capture more attention. " let me ask you a few questions (no fair using google or Wikipedia for the answers):

1. What's going on in the Helmand province?

2. What's going on at the Baghram AFB?

3. What's going on in the Manas AFB?

4. How many troops does Obama want to leave in Afghanistan after 2014?

Bonus question: What's going on in Okinawa and Guam?



On edit: to correct typo

I was kinda hoping for a reply.

THANKS MIRT!!!!1!