Sure hope Oleg gets with the program

[Blackdog_kt]

I think it all boils down to being active as a citizen. You can't correct your country's wrongs on a global scale if you don't work in parallel to correct them on a domestic scale. America is a powerful country built on the honest sweat and toil of its people, but also on the blood of many people including their own. And it happens to a certain degree in every country out there.

Why is the US able to have such a powerful, professional army? Because it's the domestic policies that enforce this on the citizen. If i come from a disadvantaged background, more so for minorities, if i have no insurance, no job, no health care, no means to feed my family and no money to adequately support myself through college what are my options for a good and dependable paycheck? I either go for big money with an uncertainty factor by crossing to the wrong side of the law, or settle for less money but in a heavily regulated environment and enlist in the professional army. Or flip burgers for the rest of my life.

Professional armies are good for a country to have because the personnel accumulates training and experience, but a 100% professional army dilutes the basic idea behind an army. And that is that every man will do his part if the need arises for the defence of certain values and their homes. In the case of the US, a bunch of people will skip going to the army because they can afford a better standard of living and leave it to those with a higher sense of responsibility and those with no better means to pursue a career. In my humble opinion, a mix of drafted conscripts and professionals is best, because it will still accumulate the needed experience among its professional ranks, while still containing enough civilians to doubt and oppose its use as a mercenary tool for some powermongers that sit in an office and talk on the phone while we're out there getting killed. And while they can't do much while they are in the army, they still have something that worries the suits, a voice, a brain and a vote.