Why do Americans 'tend' to idolise their soldiers?

[pzijderv]

In this country we are not given any special treatment, but whenever I visit the USA and go out in uniform I never pay for a drink. They love Brits in uniform out there, must be a novelty thing. Free drinks and all they ask for in return is that I talk to them in my accent, bargain!

would probably be more of a challenge if they asked you to talk without the accent? :P

[Purlina]

Exactly this, we recognize the bravery and courage it takes to volunteer yourself to be put into possibly (read: Likely) life-threatening situations, thus we respect that.

Yet there are plenty of dangerous jobs that never recieved much attention or respect

[Reeve]

would probably be more of a challenge if they asked you to talk without the accent? :P

"If you do your best American accent, I'll buy you a drink."

[openair]

But who is attacking your "freedom"? Wouldn't real protection of your country be securing the border and shooting everyone who isn't welcome (including Mexican drug-dealers and illegals)? Protecting some obscure base or embassy or even private business abroad isn't defending your country... Protecting=defending against invasion. When USA had enemies who tried to invade American mainland (again - no embassies or abroad military bases) ?

Should the USA and Canada have done as you suggest during WW2? Real war is not that black and white. You cannot always wait (nor should you) until tanks/bombs/ect are already rolling over your civilians and industry.

OP: Soldiers are heroes. Without out them, your "generic European country" would not exist.

[DEATHETERNAL]

Because the members of the US armed forces voluntarily chose to join a profession which entails brutal physical training compared to what most people experience and quite possibly entails throwing themselves into combat to be shot at and potentially killed. They do this for pay that is only slightly higher than what most people make. They chose to make that sacrifice and we give them the respect and honor they deserve.

[mindp]

"If you do your best American accent, I'll buy you a drink."

I had to watch this twice before I got it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cAnFbEXY0
"How Americans sound to British people "

[Reeve]

Yet there are plenty of dangerous jobs that never recieved much attention or respect

Mostly because those dangerous jobs aren't about protecting other people. I've worked in areas with land minds, falciparum malaria and lions eating people (and we weren't allowed weapons to defend ourselves), but it's not worthy of the same respect because it wasn't about protecting the public.

[Deleted]

Because they're willing to fight and die so that I don't have to.

when was the last time they died so you didn't have too... ?

[Deleted]

First, I think the reason that US put more pride and glory to soldiers is because it is a long time since they've had it on their own ground. War is terrible, always. Everyone loses in material and people until one has resigned from the conflict and then the remainder wins was the conflict was about. People lose their lives, their homes, are driven to poverty and despair, lose their family, are injured physically, emotionally and mentally, have to do things that will haunt them for their lives and find themselves in horrible situations on the battlefield and see sights that will leave a great stress on them. It is really atrocity and should be avoided until no better option is available. In Europe, we have had a lot of war-mongering both in the WW2 but also in the local conflicts around when they were at a hostile level. People don't want to re-experience that, so we will in general do a lot to avoid war.

In Europe, I think, we see soldiers more as duty that must be called upon when the homeland must be protected or a dangerous force must be extinguished f.ex. in WW2. It is not a glorious profession or hardened heroes that come home, it is honorable men of duty that took to defending their country with their lives. I am not ready to defend my country with my life in the way that soldiers do everyday who are out there, but I am glad that some do.

We still have the memory of a history filled with war and it's a losing position for both parts until one gives in.

Also, I don't know in the U.S., but pay for soldiers in DK isn't really high. It's more like a good middle-pay salary. There's noone who's getting rich by being a soldier (at least for far most ranks).

Also, I don't really think you can blame the soldiers for what wars they engage in - they have to go if they want to stay in the military at that position whether they're stationed somewhere in Asia or whether the old Germans are marching in over our borders. There's no good reason to diffuse politics and military with one another in these kind of countries. F.ex. personally I don't want a police man not to stop someone who is walking around shooting a shotgun on the street within the measures of the law just because this individual police man likes shotguns. The police must obey the law and its conditions and possibilities, just as a soldier must obey his orders. Don't blame the police man, blame the police system (and those who decide it, ie. politics, people, individual high-ranking orders). Also, these are young men looking for an adventure and doing something for their country, don't expect more from them in that sense. That is already enough. Part of the good thing about the military is that they are dependable and trains people to be dependable and to follow orders and meet a certain standard of requirements. It is the system that uses the soldiers that is good or bad, not the soldiers. They are the same everywhere.

[Purlina]

"If you do your best American accent, I'll buy you a drink."

America has many differenct accents, which one are you looking for :O?

[Reeve]

when was the last time they died so you didn't have too... ?

Probably some time this week in Afghanistan.

[Lunzium]

Despite your disclaimer, the question still remains loaded. American serviceman/women are like any other people. Like your generic EU country, we don't spend any second of our lives thinking about it. We're not war mongers.

you are not, your country is... or at least the ppl running it at ant given time

[MasterHamster]

because they see threats everywhere :P

[Reeve]

America has many differenct accents, which one are you looking for :O?

California. It's the most neutral of the American accents. It'd be fun to hear them attempt Georgia or Boston though.

[Felya]

They're more like the spear than the shield, but I get your point. Why wait until the attack is on our doorstep when we can dismantle it before it gets put in the mail?

Why go across the world to prevent attacks on our mail, when we had a guy on our soil do that already? How many wars did we start to apprehend the Unabomber? Yet, we are using a conventional army, against targets that have no ability to fight a conventional war. By putting soldiers on the ground, we are giving Americans as targets, to people who have no means of reaching such targets otherwise. In turn, we get kids born in other countries, waking up to gun fire and an American flag, as a means of stoping terrorism.

[Brendanb]

We're still in the mindset that everyone is out to take away our "freedom" and they're out there "protecting" it.

[Reeve]

First, I think the reason that US put more pride and glory to soldiers is because it is a long time since they've had it on their own ground. War is terrible, always. Everyone loses in material and people until one has resigned from the conflict and then the remainder wins was the conflict was about. People lose their lives, their homes, are driven to poverty and despair, lose their family, are injured physically, emotionally and mentally, have to do things that will haunt them for their lives and find themselves in horrible situations on the battlefield and see sights that will leave a great stress on them. It is really atrocity and should be avoided until no better option is available. In Europe, we have had a lot of war-mongering both in the WW2 but also in the local conflicts around when they were at a hostile level. People don't want to re-experience that, so we will in general do a lot to avoid war.

In Europe, I think, we see soldiers more as duty that must be called upon when the homeland must be protected or a dangerous force must be extinguished f.ex. in WW2. It is not a glorious profession or hardened heroes that come home, it is honorable men of duty that took to defending their country with their lives. I am not ready to defend my country with my life in the way that soldiers do everyday who are out there, but I am glad that some do.

We still have the memory of a history filled with war and it's a losing position for both parts until one gives in.

If anything a war on our own territory would make us respect the soldiers even more, because they'd be directly defending us.

[Deleted]

Probably some time this week in Afghanistan.

you didn't have to die though... ? its completely unnecessary. take nothing away from the soldiers, but its been along time since soldiers where defending to the point it would be you instead.

[Reeve]

I guess this was also the case in Europe before WW1 but then after WW1 and WW2 and all the people seeing the terrors of modern war 1st hand, they now mostly despise conflict. US people were pretty much safe across the ocean from the big conflicts, maybe that's why war is looked upon differently there today.

Despising conflict and honoring soldiers are not mutually exclusive.

[Wyrt]

While solders are certainly brave I don't really like the American military as a whole. There's been too many shitty wars in the recent past(Vietnam, Iraq, etc) but that's really not a new thing for America since we can look back further to the Mexican American War or the near genocide(complete annihilation for some tribes) of Native Americans. I honestly don't understand why anyone would join the military.