When people brag about the US military I feel embarrassed for them.

[marble falls]

30. The military isn't right for everyone. But is necessary, the next time a national threat comes up ...

... we won't have to start from scratch. A good military shortens wars. And WWII was ended by a huge percentage of those who were not ready to be in the military. Having a skeleton of veterans already in uniform and trained saved lives.

I submit the largest, most well equipped humanitarian relief organizations is the US military. And our military has been used as peace keepers all over the planet, putting themselves between partisans in terrible situations. I'd ask millions of civilians in Kosovo, Croatia, Herzegovina, Bosnia, the Congo what they think of the US military. Places where the military was not the cause of war, but politicians were.

It's not the US military, which has a long and continued reputation for keeping it's nose out civilian government, but our politicians who try to make to use the military as a sledge hammer. The regular army got used in very few confrontations in this nation, and the military felt burnt by it. Politicians have used National Guards to dismal results, but the National Guards are controlled by politicians.

The military doesn't make national policy, the politicians do. The Defense Department Secretary is a civilian politician chosen by another politician. The Secretaries of the various services are civilian politicians named by a politician.

Vote wisely and the military is no danger to anyone.