Concur wholeheartedly with you, King. I knew I had to get out of the Army - which I had gone into thinking would be my career - when I recognized that the Soviets and Germans on the other side of the Inter-German Border fence were different from me only in minor things. They wore different uniforms and spoke different languages but that was pretty much the only difference. We were all obligated to follow the orders, and were therefore mere pawns, of politicians who'd cause wars for reasons we would neither know about nor have any influence over.
This is not - repeat, not - to cast any sort of equivalency over different regimes that have existed. There is no reasonable reason to question that the system we live under here, for all its flaws, is far better in many, many ways, than those other systems. Rather, from the perspective of the common soldier, the relative merits of political systems have little importance. You're more concerned about your buddies and men, a chance at a hot meal or a fresh pair of socks, and the constant threat of death - quick or not - landing on you. The pols, well, they're safely ensconced far to the rear.
