I appreciate your comments of concern, but....
Our son's first deployment to Iraq was when the war was extremely "hot". I probably took having him in a combat zone worse than his Mother did. Every day I would pull up the casualty reports. Then one day, it hit me. During that deployment, he was with the 82nd Airborne... one of the world's finest fighting units. He is well trained. He enjoys his job and is good at it.
How many people who go to cubicles or offices every day hate their jobs. How many people almost make themselve ill, not wanting to get out of bed to go to work. And, while pushing themselves to go to a job they dislike, they can get hit by a truck or have some other catastrophe. If our son loves his work and gets up each day wanting to be a better soldier, more power to him!!! Once I put it in those terms, it seemed as if a load was lifted.
This "kid".... he's in his early 30's... loves to jump out of perfectly good airplanes and run marathons. He had a tough week, last week. They had night jumps Wednesday night. The jump conditions were quite windy. One of the young soldiers in his unit got his chute turned with the wind and was blown off range. The boy landed in trees and fractured a vertabre in his back. Our son accompanied him to the hospital and stayed with him all night. (The young soldier is okay, just will be apt to have back trouble the rest of his life.)
Then, Saturday morning, our son and three others from his unit left at 2 a.m. to drive to a "forced march" competition 4 hours from their base. In full battle gear and with a backpack that had to weigh a minimum of 35 pounds, they marched 18 miles. The goal was to complete the 18 mile march in under 4 1/2 hours. Our son came in 20 minutes under at 4:10. One of the other boys with him just slid in under the 4:30 wire. The other two finished the march, but did not make the time target. I asked our son what he got for completing the march under the allotted time. He said a small medal that he could wear on his dress blues... and a huge boost to his ego!!!
We're proud of all our children. This young man is one of the most decorated chefs in the military, having won well over a dozen gold and silver medals in culinary competitons sanctioned and judged by the American Culinary Society. He could walk "outside" and immediately find employment as a chef. Yet, he is mindful of the benefits the military offers he and his family and he wears his uniform proudly. So... his choice is to continue jumping out of those airplanes and working to keep those soldiers under his command as fit, well trained, and safe as possible.
I have studied a lot on religion, and imo, everything you said is absolute truth. They are infected with hate, the worst disease of all