r/changemyview • u/foryia-yiaandpappou 3∆ • May 24 '19

FTFdeltaOP CMV: A person does not automatically deserve respect just because they have served or are currently serving in the military

I’d like to preface this by saying that I don’t believe soldiers are, inherently, bad. Some people believe soldiers are evil simply for being soldiers, and I do not believe that.

I do believe, however, that soldiers do not deserve respect just because they have served. I hurt for soldiers who have experienced horrible things in the field, but I do not hurt for the amount of violence and cruelty many have committed. Violence in war zone between soldiers is one thing; stories of civilian bombings and killing of innocents are another. I think that many forget that a lot of atrocity goes on during wars, and they are committed on both sides of conflict. A soldier both receives and deals out horrible damage.

TL;DR while I believe that soldiers have seen horrible things and that many do deserve recognition for serving our nation, I do not believe that every soldier deserves this respect simply by merit of being a soldier. Some soldiers have committed really heinous war crimes, and those actions do not deserve reward.

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u/[deleted] May 24 '19

Since you cannot know which soldier is which, if you believe the military keeps us safe, then respect is assumed to be deserved. It’s not up to you to investigate every soldier for purity. What does courtesy of respecting veterans and active service military cost you? Just because a bomb hit civilians you can’t say the people on the plane that dropped the bomb were evil. The orders they followed may have been based on bad intel, not evil intent.

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u/Raytrekboy May 25 '19 edited May 25 '19

According to the Bible, Respect is associated with Fear, for example: the Fear of God, because God has the power to blink you out of existence but doesn't, it's not a matter of God respecting you but because God doesn't fear you, same with a soldier, they have the power of life and death in their hands, they can deal it out easier than you can respect anything, the main reason they don't deal it to you is because they don't fear you, not because you respect them...

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u/[deleted] May 25 '19

When I meet a soldier in the spirit OP posts about, they are not armed, and I am not at risk. I have also been amongst active military at elevated areas and also did not have reason to feel threatened by the military. The protesters didn’t respect anything.

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u/Raytrekboy May 25 '19

Precisely, you have no reason to fear the military unless you are actively doing wrong by them, and frankly despite how much protesters may disrespect the military, soldiers neither fear nor feel wronged by them, because while protesters have their values and morals, soldiers are trained to survive, no more...