http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_complex

I, for one, am only in the military (far from any sort of combat MOS, mind you) to provide a reliable, comfortable home for my wife and child. I don't give a rat's ass about anybody's freedom or defending any countries overseas. I don't believe in most of what the military preaches, anyways.

Definition is the fundamental problem with a lot of discussions.

but freedom is especially hard to define, since when you try to you will find that you either don't have that much more freedom than anyone else in the world, or the kind of freedom you have is impossible to defend outside your countries borders.

It isn't simply for our freedoms the military is fighting for the best interests of the United States of America. In the US's case in Canada's case it is for the best out come for the whole world and in every democratic super power in Nato's case for the best interests of democracy which is essentially our freedoms.

Look I have yet to meet a single soldier who did not join the army to defend our freedoms. Even after serving I have never met a sodlier who did not give a valid reason for the conflict he fought even if he disagreed with the reason.

I have never seen a politician order a war when it did not interest the American people to win. Because the US President relies on the votes of the US people and every conflict he enters needs to be justifiable. The problem being the Government often knows more then the average citizen, in fact based on what we know most of the conflicts we are in or have been in were done so for a variety of reasons other then those given.

Propoganda is used to try and justify conflicts. Fact is American's are self centered and only care about what effects them right now. They don't see very far into the future and they don't understand politics. Us here on VGChartz are a little brighter then the average American but lets face it if President Bush said the reason he wanted to invade Iraq was to destabalize the region bringing a stable democracy in over throwing a dictator and putting US forces in a position where they could act in the gulf. Do you honestly believe the American people would have supported the war? The US people didn't give a shit that Saddam had killed tens of thousands of his own citizens they didn't give a shit that his country was a dictatorship or that the US didn't have a good footing in the region.

Now regardless of Bush's reasons whether it was to establish a democracy and US presence in the region. To scare neighbouring countries and hopefully prevent future conflicts. Whether it was a personal vendetta to finish what his father began or even the less likely borderline insane notion it was over oil. Any of those or all of those benefit the American people.

The US only looks out for itself even the most corrupt politicians in the US aren't going to do something that needlessly jeoprodizes the US Government or the survival of the US people. I was going to go in and detail each conflict listed but honestly I think the above is good enough. The US wouldn't have any rights or freedoms if it wasn't for the military. Whether it was the Northern troops fighting the south in the civil war to the modern day Afghanistan or Iraq and even Libya. Every conflict in the US's history has benefitted the American people and in turn their freedoms.

Even if you say any conflicts were done out of corporate greed and oil. Well hate to break it to yah but the US relies on oil as does their military and the country that controls the oil is pretty protected. In turn protecting the freedoms American's enjoy.

Now if you tried to argue Canada wasn't defending democratic values I would have to laugh in your face. America is contriversial but no doubt the military does protect the best interests of the people in its country (If that country is one of the major western democracies).

It's 75% bullshit and 25% misleading truth.

Many US politicians seem to believe that the brains of US citizens automatically turn off as soon as someone utters the words "freedom" or "democracy" (or, even better: both)

For example I'm always laughing out loud whenever US-politicians etc. claim that terrorists hate America because they hate freedom or democracy. This is so ridiculous that I always believe those politicians must believe their fellow countrymen to be complete brainwashed idiots.

On the other hand, when politicians say that the military is fighting for your freedoms, they are strictly speaking not completely lying. Instead, it's more a euphemism for saying "the military is fighting to ensure Americas wealth and "interests", and the average US citizen benefits from these military actions as well". When they say freedom, they don't mean "freedom" as in "freedom of speech", instead they rather mean freedoms like "freedom to drive a bigass gasoline guzzling SUV because we have the money and oil stays cheap". They are talking about the kinds of freedoms that wealthy people have but poor people don't.

@ ArnoldRimmer

Your freedom ends where restrictions and regulations for others begin. So, the more power we have to suppress the world, the more freedom we gain. If only stupid hippies could understand this.

That makes no sense at all.  There are many countries that can't suppress the world that have as many, if not more, freedoms than we do.  Take a look at the Scandinavian region or Netherlands.  In many ways, they have more freedom than we do.  Japan has no standing army, and they have just as much freedom as us - even economically (I've lived there).  Unless you are one of those people that believes that the US is the only free country - which is sometimes hard to convince some conservatives that it's not true.

Exactly.  I'm not justifying the terrorists actions or anything, but if "hatred of freedom" was the only motive - then they would go for the Netherlands as a target over us.  It has much more to do with our foreign policy - especially with Israel these days.  You are right, many seem to think all of us are Fox News viewers or Rush Limbaugh listeners that won't look into anything further.

Recently Japan was going to sell the treasuries to recover their economy a bit but were "recommended" not to do so. Now, which state has more freedom you say? In fact, it's only Russia which dare to drive money away atm, may be because damn commies still have some nukes and balls left? Lots of Japanese companies have been in American court, as a man who lived there you obviously can name me a few American companies sanctioned by nihojin, right?

Don't know much about Norway affairs, but them being member of NATO speaks for itself. Time will come when Arctica will become very hot area, then we'll see.

I'm talking about the freedom of the individual citizens, not what the state can do.  Most wars are fought over what the state can do and not the freedom of the individuals.  Russia hasn't been communist for 20 years now, officially.