Post by geriatrix on Nov 4, 2015 9:08:04 GMT
The role for soldiers have changed dramaticelly over the last decades.
Traditionally, a soldier was supposed to fight a war for his or her armed forces against a hostile nation.
But starting with Kuwait, the role of soldiers took on a new direction as a member of a world police force to fight terrorism in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is a step up the ladder from the peacekeeping service that I participated in when I was deployed to Lebanon in the mid 1985s.
While it normaly is a consensus in a country's population that fighting an enemy is praiseworthy, the new situation has spawned a lot of controversy. Many people are against the idea that their fellow countrymen and -women are being sent to faraway places to take part in a conflict on alien turf. The politicians that make such desicions tend to become unpopular with the oppossition and sometimes, homecoming soldiers are being harassed by extreme pacifists.
It is therefore important that we support them and honour their effort. The world has changed and we need to follow suit. It's not easy to maintain peace anymore and without such people, we would soon be at beck and call of terrorists in more profound ways than we already are.
Traditionally, a soldier was supposed to fight a war for his or her armed forces against a hostile nation.
But starting with Kuwait, the role of soldiers took on a new direction as a member of a world police force to fight terrorism in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is a step up the ladder from the peacekeeping service that I participated in when I was deployed to Lebanon in the mid 1985s.
While it normaly is a consensus in a country's population that fighting an enemy is praiseworthy, the new situation has spawned a lot of controversy. Many people are against the idea that their fellow countrymen and -women are being sent to faraway places to take part in a conflict on alien turf. The politicians that make such desicions tend to become unpopular with the oppossition and sometimes, homecoming soldiers are being harassed by extreme pacifists.
It is therefore important that we support them and honour their effort. The world has changed and we need to follow suit. It's not easy to maintain peace anymore and without such people, we would soon be at beck and call of terrorists in more profound ways than we already are.
