[khnyny]

I actually agree with you. Our costs for military salaries and pensions are astronomical. I personally know people who have sucked as much as they possibly could from the military, got the salary, housing benefits, education benefits, etc, etc., and believe me, the etc is mind boggling. They are now on to the second career and not looking back - with their government paid doctorate.

Slurp, slurp, slurp - sucking the Republic dry.

[mylife]

Without them there would be NO REPUBLIC!

And they live very meager lives while sacrificing greatly.

[KantianBurke]

Yeah those greedy shiftless military folks. Not like they’ve been engaged in two land wars for more than a decade all the while enduring year long multiple deployments away from friends and family or anything. Meanwhile PTSD rates, instances of suicide and homelessness for vets are astronomical. But they’re “sucking the republic dry.” Right. -disgusted sarcasm off-

[buccaneer81]

I hope you’re wearing Nomex.

[Palladin]

Right. They lay their lives on the line so that assholes like you can be free to post shit like that.

[ThunderStruck94]

Be careful. I have been in the military for 24 years. I have four children and a wife. I have been away from them many different times ranging from 6 months to a year. The lifestyle sucks a lot sometimes. Now I am one of those guys that does get a pretty good paycheck. I am an O-5 who gets to fly jets (and I would probably do it for a lot less). I do agree that we have a lot of dead weight and that a lot of military jobs can be contracted. But guys like me earn what I get in my opinion. I am in Bahrain right now and had to send my wife and four children back to the states last week (They are living in a hotel stateside waiting in limbo right now) because of the unrest. The reason why we have the best military in the world right now is because we pay them and take good care of them. We have to make a choice. Do we want to still be the world's police? If not, then we can really cut back. However, the way the government is using us right now, we have to hold onto a lot of military members because we are overstretched.