As a veteran, I must admit there were times where it felt like liberal college students did not support us. We were constantly shown videos of anti-war demonstrators. In the early-mid 2000s, I had a pretty strong bitterness toward people my age who got to go to college, because the only reason I joined the military was so I could do the same. It really seemed at the time, that those kids were ignorant, naive, and out of touch with those of us who didn't come from wealthy families.

As I grew older and began dissecting military culture, my cynicism shifted toward the US DoD. I realized there were many things that directly conflicted with my personal morals. It may have been the out-of-context brainwashing programming they played on AFN "Armed Forces Network," the only channel we could watch on base overseas. "Kill people and break shit" was a daily response in one of our many running cadences. Part of basic training was having to study the history of US wars. The way Vietnam, Desert Storm, etc were presented in the study guides was much different than they were described in less-biased sources. I think the real turning point was when I was in the Middle East during Christmas 2004. AFN didn't really have commercial breaks. Instead, they played "Wishing you Happy Holidays" clips from the Bush administration, DoD officials, and higher-ranking officers. Many times, they would be surrounded by their family, dressed in comfortable sweaters and such. It seemed like a huge slap in the face because I would have done anything to see the people I loved. Instead, I was limited to 20 minutes/week of telephone contact. Nobody had cell phones or laptops; they were not allowed. I had worked over 50 12-hour shifts in a row without a day off. I slowly started to believe that they didn't really care.