  There is a commentator up in Albany for NPR who was in WWII and he was most poignant in his summary of the experience of war: once you have served you are changed. Some people become "anti-war" as the republicans like to put it and others are as gung-ho for confrontation as ever, and still others fall into the defeated category which I think you see a lot from Vietnam War, because there was so much controversy over it.
But nevertheless you cannot come out of serving in a confrontation without being changed. On a different note, I was in a budget hearing today, part of which concerned proposed cuts for welfare recipients, and there were protesters. It really drove home the gap between the legislators and the public and how their decisions are so far removed from the reality of the situation. 
