Military/Civilian Disconnect

[longknife]

I was not going to read this at first, but then changed my mind. And, I'm glad I did. Here's an excerpt from the piece:

“American soldiers are not forgotten in their communities. But they are a rapidly shrinking minority among their neighbors, because they are part of an all-volunteer military and because of our prickly political age of austerity in which base closings and consolidations have made the military a smaller component of fewer and fewer communities.”

It was posted on American Power but linked to this newspaper @ Our isolated military | TribLIVE

This makes a lot of sense to me. Our military is no longer a Citizen Army as it was during the draft. Now, to many, our soldiers, sailors, and airmen seem far away. Only those directly related to them seem to understand their efforts. And, when they fall in battle, share the pain and suffering. I can post all the casualty statistics available and it means nothing to far too many.

You? What is your connect/disconnect?