Ok... so my daughter and wife were at the grandparent's all day.  My two brothers came over.  So it's been a shitfest day in the best sort of way.
My brother is being deployed.  He's a very sensible man.  We had a conversation and I thought to myself: "the enlightened on EBW blogs would likely have some intelligent input" and so I put it to you:
The question he proposed was: Do the soldiers of today deserve the same level of respect as those who served in World War II? 
Further explanation: Those who served then didn't gain much personally.  So their motivation was more  "fight for what we believe in" or "fight for our country" or simply put "stop the bad guys"
However, today, he explained that many soldiers fight for "the paid tuition" or the "guaranteed pension" or the "pay better than they could receive in the private industrial world, as a barely-passing Highschool graduate"
In short, today many do it for themselves.  And even those who do it for the 'old' reasons still get compensated significantly more than 2 generations ago.  
However, I argued that as a civilian, I receive the same level of national protection that the civilians did 2 generations ago.  So despite my compensation payment to the soldiers (in terms of tax-dollars), I am equally grateful as those folks were 70 years ago.  It's not about their gain, but of mine.
But now that the day is over and I am sufficiently out of alcohol, I keep wondering if maybe he was on to something.  Is my pounding the table screaming "support your troops" not the same as it was for those just 70 years ago?  Should we not be just as proud, just as supportive of those who are protecting us because we show our support in other ways?  Or are they getting enough out of our wallets that they don't need our positive attention as well?