As a veteran (of a long forgotten war), I don’t much care for using vets as a project to further any point of view. It’s hard enough to drag your sorry ass and broken heart home without the humiliation of becoming someone’s pet if you make it.

You are right about how soldiers are looked upon as curious servants by the privileged, but the privileged in this case is 90% of Americans. They see soldiers as baristas who have been paid to serve them the latte of safety.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!