There's always been that element of military service, and I think the experience of WWII and the cold war changed the stakes temporarily. https://en.wikipedia.

There's always been that element of military service, and I think the experience of WWII and the cold war changed the stakes temporarily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket It has definitely gotten worse since the Iraq War for a variety of reasons, and I think a big part of it is the lack of a draft has created a growing disconnect between "military people" and the population at large. There's no sense of shared sacrifice. People think they pay their taxes and that's as far as they need to sacrifice, and soldiers look around at their friends dying to secure oil fields for exxon-mobil while nobody at home is paying attention and can't help but get cynical.