Originally Posted by AJChenMPH

There's a book out there titled "AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country" by Kathy Roth-douquet and Frank Schaeffer.

While it primarily addresses why the absence of the American "elite" and aristocracy is potentially detrimental to the future of the US military, the themes can be extrapolated to precisely why we live in the pop-crazy culture that we do here in the US. It also indirectly explains why servicemembers have the exact reaction that this particular servicemember had.

It's worth a read if you have a couple of days (it's a very quick read).