I am soooooo tired of the heroes in uniform bullshit. I was in the military and I can tell you that it’s just like any other group of humans. You’ve got some really good folks, some really shitty folks, and a whole lot of folks just trying to get through the day. When you pretend all of them are heroes you make that meaningless for the ones who actually are and you give cover to the shitholes hiding in uniform. Go look up statistics on rape of servicewomen by servicemen and then talk to me about how every soldier is a “hero”.
Most military, like most cops, are fine people. The biggest mistake they make is in covering for the bad apples in their midst. If the military and the cops were really so uber-honorable and uber-honest then they’d keep their own house clean and they wouldn’t tainted by the actions of the few. But the majority is just grinding through another day and it’s easier to look the other way and not make waves, and “that dude was really cool at the poker game the other night so I don’t want to get him trouble”.
I used to love the fairy tale of the honorable soldier, but sadly I grew up and I learned that many of them aren’t all that honorable.
I don’t want to see the military (or cops) depicted as the bad guys, I want to see them depicted as real people.