If matador is a veteran then his definition of friends getting killed might be a little different. Not taking anything away from what you feel or dishonoring your friends and their families. Unfortunately every generation sees the younger one as softer. It’s also unfortunate that for 17 years many youngsters have grown up in a country at war without ever feeling threatened and not appreciating what servicemen are actually protecting. Everyone has someone that they’re close the die. The circumstances behind those deaths makes a ton of difference.
I'm not a veteran and certain statements are being attributed to me that I did not make.
I don't think many or even most if today's young people know the sacrifice many of my generation made. I'm not saying I did. I do think many millennials are soft, spoiled and self-centered. Many, not all.
They lead a privileged life, have many of the expensive toys (iPads, IPhones, expensive computers, etc.) they want and don't face having it all taken away by being forced to go to war.
When I used to watch the rolling lists of the latest killed in Iraq or Afghanistan on the Sunday morning show on ABC, it was overwhelmingly kids from smaller towns, rural areas and less affluent areas. They had to join up to get out, to get a job. Little opportunity for them where they lived.
I don't claim to be a hero or to have made the sacrifices many of my generation and that
some of today's millennials have made. Most millennials don't have to fear being uprooted, having their lives disrupted and the possibility of being killed in Asia.
I don't think I knew anybody killed in Viet Nam. It could be some I went to HS were but I wouldn't know. I lost touch with my classmates not long after I went to college.
Most of my friends and I were lucky. We had student deferments and did not get called. Maybe in WW II we would not have described it as luck. Attitudes about Viet Nam were very different. .
There was a sense of duty about WW II that was not there with Viet Nam.