ah how sweet, and as it should be, I suspect this generation of kids has a greater respect for the troops than their parent's generation
it has been noted that in Canada, despite the declining number of veterans, that our Remembrance Day ceremonies are increasingly attended by young people and some Ozzies were saying the same about their ANZAC day recently.....
A lot of that has to do with the young people playing accurate simulation games and the rise of technology. The first twenty minutes of SPR didn't hurt, either.
The previous generation saw the soldiers life in boring documentary snippets and dusty old books (and were told that the military wasn't important, only losers served in the military - you know, the usual post-60's liberal BS). The difference is that today, someone can go to the store, buy something like Battlefield: Vietnam or Medal Of Honor, or rent Saving Private Ryan or The Patriot, and actually get a teeny tiny small taste of what combat is really like and the sacrifices our soldiers make and have made since 1775.
A lot of people my age had the general impression that the Normandy landings were "sort of hard, weren't they?". SPR changed their minds about that, and the Omaha Beach stage in MOH (as well as other similar simulations in other games) beat it out of most of the rest of them. There is nothing like seeing something for yourself (as it were) to make you appreciate someone's actions. And I think that's why a lot of the younger generation aren't real interested in people who mistreat our military. They've seen some tiny part of what the military *really* does.