Quote Originally Posted by jonSlack View Post
Something I've been batting around in my head for a bit: Does the volunteer military create a "free lunch" in American society?
I think everyone chips in their fair share for nuclear deterrence and many of the other things the military does, but it's pretty hard to argue that the costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom are borne equally by all Americans. In order to determine whether or not there's a free lunch you'd need to figure out exactly what the benefits were and who was enjoying them.

In terms of military knowledge it would be nice if voters understood the basic difference between conventional operations and asymmetric combat. The people who thought that the first gulf war would turn into another Vietnam and those who thought that the second one would be over in a couple of weeks have caused some problems.