Reply #1: Mercenary == Troop you do not have to actually "support" [View All]

[ChenZhen]

We love mercenaries because its socially acceptable to continuously hate and berade them. It allows us to hate the war, pretend to love the military, but still have an outlet for our outrage and hatred. While the military has a "few bad apples", all the mercenaries are bad apples. Rather than being well-trained, more mature, militaristic soldiers who simply get paid more, they are instead responsible for Abu Gharib, the destruction of Fulluja, the innocents killed by our smart bombs, the 2 million displaced Iraqis, etc.... Everything the trigger happy, adrenaline junky, under-paid, under-trained, barely past pubescence, bonus signing, "patriotically" misguided, BUT absolutely loveable troops do, we will just pin on the mercenaries...


Something seems really wrong and stupid about this sense of outrage for the mercenaries. Not that its unfounded. Rather, that is disproportionate and paradoxical to the love for the good ol' boy troops that fight for our freedom, who we can never talk bad about without fear of expulsion and ridicule.