Whoo boy, what a topic!
Mostly because my belief has morphed somewhat over these past several years. I am a proud American, and having a Marine for a father, I have great love and admiration for our American fighting forces.
...but I am coming to believe that sometimes governments send young men off to war to rid themselves of a warrior class who might pose them a political threat...that class threatens their accruing of power - so they create mini-wars, perpetually, to siphon off the warriors. They over-commit them, then underpay them, and if they come home from these wars, they are either broken mentally or physically - and pose little threat. If any of this class returns without outward scars, they are often targeted as potential troublemakers and their service to our country works against them. The climate in the country is NOT supportive of their causes (most don't even know why our troops are committed... anywhere).
I have begun to see that our country is following a path that says they do not deserve our children/would-be warriors. I think it is time to limit our governments ability to diffuse political unrest, by sending the best and the brightest off to fight wars - specially designed to make them wars of attrition...
We have allies, we have STRONG allies, and then we have people we pay off to keep their countries from becoming powder kegs.
If the government wants our sons and daughters to fight for them, it seems their is a sacred commitment that has been lost - they should fight to win wars, not make our enemies happy we're shooting them.
While I'm not longer of the opinion that we should deploy our forces to remove someone else's bully...I recognize that not everything can be fixed overnight...therefore, If they ARE committed they should have a tight commission and then BROUGHT HOME as soon as the BULLY/strongman is either decapitated, or incapacitated.
No more 10 years of creeping death, misguided heroism committed to a plan with no achievable objective. This is just an organized depletion of our population. Our minders aren't happy that those of us that no longer agree with them - keep having children, and then that we have become proficient at making SOME of them capable of critical thought!
You ask me what I think about N Korea? I say pull the 80,000 boys out and let S Korea slug it out with them. Let their Gungam style layabouts defend their own countries ideals - and if those ideals aren't ingrained in the soft offspring...let them learn how to goose step.
Our men have been the only line of defense for GENERATIONS. The US forces, while numerous, would be mere cannon fodder for any real war in N Korea. We also lack the resolve to let them fight a real war...so just let North and South go at it. In the end your country has to know what it is committed to, than about how much money it can make laying around criticizing others who do all your heavy lifting.
Seems to me we should be asked nicely to be the armed forces of a country, at numbers we determine, free of any input from the country who is abrogating their responsibility. We should be seen as deliverers and guarantors of peace - not as objects of ridicule - whether thats in North Korea, Northern Chad, or Northern "Kazakysthan" (as our newly minted comrade at the State Department is fond of reciting).
Just my two cents...and I'm beginning to wonder why the guy who campaigned for deadlines for withdrawal, and bringing troops home (not to mention closing GTMO)...isn't being held more accountable for leaving them in place, and even INCREASING their number (don't give me the "we're out of Iraq" speech - if you don't think the Private Army currently prosecuting the war there - answers to the Secretary of State/POTUS - because I'll simply say that you're as blind as a bat, and prob'ly happily so)?