The New York Times finally realized that police departments in modern American are beginning to resemble militaries. The article doesn’t contain much of interest if you’ve been following this militarization for any amount of time but there was a nugget worth mentioning:
In the Indianapolis suburbs, officers said they needed a mine-resistant vehicle to protect against a possible attack by veterans returning from war.
“You have a lot of people who are coming out of the military that have the ability and knowledge to build I.E.D.’s and to defeat law enforcement techniques,” Sgt. Dan Downing of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department told the local Fox affiliate, referring to improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. Sergeant Downing did not return a message seeking comment.
This brings up the state’s hypocritical view of military personnel. We the people are constantly propagandized about how great the United States military is. According to this propaganda American soldiers are heroes who deserve devout worship. As civilians we’re supposed to thank any soldiers we come across for protecting our “freedoms”. But that’s only while soldiers are deployed overseas. Once they come back and leave the military they’re suddenly dangerous monsters that must be watched careful at all times and put down when they fail to do what they’re told.
I’m not sure why anybody would enter the military these days. It’s a shitty job that involves a great deal of risk. They pay isn’t great and the benefits are pretty nonexistent. And once your time in the military is completed you get to suffer a substandard medical system (it somehow manages to be worse than the standard medical system the rest of us are inflicted with) and be viewed like a threat from your former employer.
Kipling said it well over a century ago with “Tommy.”
http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/tommy.html