Too bad you have chosen to use mockery and equivocation to try to make points.
On a serious note, the US has a history of fear of standing armies, choosing instead to rely on the call up of militia forces in time of need. I submit that European nations have a fear of militias (but I cannot substantiate this other than by appeal to the rest of Europe's reaction to Napoleon's armies of the people and the results of the Congress of Vienna). Does Germany having anything like the US National Guard, which is a military force in each state under the control of the governor of that state? In some states, a state militia also exists alongside the National Guard. The National Guard primarily provides support to local (state) law enforcement and disaster relief agencies when it has not been called into Federal service.
I also suspect that most European nations are federal unions with little to no states rights (although I seem to remember that the Bavarian Free State is or was somewhat unique in its relationship to the rest of Germany and Switzerland is a confederation.) The US started as a confederation, not a federal union, which may explain some of the differences between the US military and that of European nations or the former colonies of European nations.
American business executives can be tried for abuse of office, although it is not called that. Still things like insider trading are exactly such abuses of office in the private sector.. (Check out Bernie Madoff or Jeff Skilling for examples.)
In American English at least, "special" can just mean different, it does not always have a connotation of "better." The attitude you are describing is, I think, an outgrowth of the attitude about the great cause described in the JMA quotation from Buchan to which I expressed concern in a later post in response to Carl
(Aside to The Curmudgeon--I'm trying to get back to the critique by Lind.) The last few lines above may be of use as an explanation for some of the officer failings Lind asserts. I believe that much of the US military does not have this overinflated sense of self-worth. Rather, my experience with them is that they are a humble and self-effacing group of folks. In fact, I think that were the US to follow the proposals made by JMA for selection and training, the expression by military members of their superiority and entitlement to special privilege would be even worse, in the American military at least.
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