Why do people associate the military with...

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doing good things for the world and making it a better place?

I'm not saying that's not always the case, but a lot of times, political leaders make wrong decisions and a military mission actually messes up the world.

If you're still not convinced then how about this...

Soldiers killing enemy soldiers. How can you say both are making the world a better place when they are using their weapons killing each other and taking away life? Its all about the perspective and some luck (how things "play out").

So if you ask me, I would say "not necessarily". Its a sad fact that a soldier needs to follow orders that may not make the world a better place.

In recruitment commercials though, the reason why they portray it positively is obvious, they want to recruit people into the army.

I would describe myself as "really close to being a pacifist". Part of what influences my view may be due to the fact that in the post 9/11 world, I don't see what military action has accomplished. If anything, it seems, more hatred.

War and death.

The US military has been misused but it has also done great things. Disaster relief is a huge part of the modern military mission, most recently as seen in Japan. In the past decade we've given two countries much greater levels of freedom and democracy(Whether that was worth the cost is an entirely different discussion) and are right now supporting a rebel group fighting for it's own freedom(Which hopefully won't turn out to bite us in the ass).

Sure the world would be a better place if nobody had a military and nobody fought. That would be really nice. But that's not the way it works. I won't even say organized militaries are a "necessary evil", they are straight up necessary.

This is not to say that they are utilized "properly", they certainly are not. But ultimately that's beside the point.

Defending territory is a biological initiative, and a population that does not (provided that it is not protected by another that will) will be selected against pretty much every time.

I don't get the sentimentality towards the military, and I don't call them heroes either. Why should they risk dying in their early 20s, and killing others in stupid wars? There are much safer jobs out there where they won't die in battle, which is an avoidable death. I'm not having a go at soldiers themselves, I'm just saying there should be less of them because it's sad that these people get shot and blown up because countries just can't get on.

The primary purpose of the armed forces is to defend the nation and its interests and to destroy the enemy in time of war, not to serve as missionaries or as an armed Peace Corps.
By defending the country and it’s interests they are doing good because that’s what they do by definition.

I also associate it with violence.

Violence can be a good and necessary thing, depending on the situation.......

" We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. "

Oh ya, I agree on that, and I even said that its not always the case that soldiers are ordered to do things that are technically legal under international law but are counterproductive.

Thats not the real reason the US went to war though. One was in response to 9/11 and the other was because of accusations that Saddam had WMDs. If the US started all the wars to give freedom and democracy they might as well invade other countries like Saudi Arabia and Myanmar this minute!! Of course, I'm not saying that the US should do that.

oh ya, and what about Saddam's military before the fall of his regime? Would you say the soldiers were making the world a better place by invading Kuwait and gassing them? What about Gaddafi's military?

But is it always good to destroy the enemy? Keep in mind that your country is "the enemy" according to the enemy's perspective. So your enemy will see it as good to destroy your own country. Are you OK with that?

In conclusion, war makes my head explode!! (No pun intended).

I could care less about the enemy's prespective.

I'm not defending every military.


Just the one I'm in.

Another thing, I don't like how people say their country's military is doing the right thing, it's defending this or that and it's the "goodies" of the war. In conflict there are no goodies or baddies, both sides are doing the exact same thing (trained to fight) and both sides think they're the goodies.
In conflicts I always wonder how the so called enemy is coping with it, how many of their troops have died or feel bad for killing people. Don't forget the so called enemy army is made up of people, people with lives and families and friends and likes and dislikes.

it's like so-called 'holy wars'.. how can both sides be fighting for God?

No idea. Holy wars are the most ridiculous because they're literally fighting FOR NO REASON. That's the problem with humans, we're always thinking up excuses to fight each other, and it doesn't help that the majority of the world nowadays lives in large countries with their own large armies so the scale of wars is increased significantly. if we still had a reasonably sized population that still lived in small communities and villages, conflicts we do have would take less lives and hopefully not last as long (also if 2 villages hate each other it's easier to avoid each other if they're fairly small and far apart.)

I wish I was an orangutan, they just don't care.