This is extremely well put. As a fellow veteran (and thank you, a fan of drafting women for some kind of service) people do not get this. They light up their BBQs this weekend because they CAN. Because of what we gave. Benjamin, there is a whole other issue issue here, about which I write, which is the additional war we women fight against men in the same uniforms, in our own foxholes. Americans not only feel deep discomfort with our soldiers, but they also cannot seem to faced the fact that we women who serve are brutalized by so many of the officers and men that they trust as leaders. Me among them. It’s complex, difficult, and hard to discuss. We don’t want to have to have a military. But without them we don’t have a country. When said military behaves badly- and this is in addition to what you so clearly point out in this excellent article- it’s just so much easier to look away.