Society does affect the military.
I guess the classic case would be ancient Rome. Romans just weren't man enough to do the fighting themselves. I'm sure they faced serious issues with enlistment that may not be too different from the US. A seemingly endless war in the frontiers against a bunch of barbarians that seemed too backward and far away to be a serious threat.
My time in the RoKMC was a time of change as well. We heard that lots of change would come during our time. And that was in answer to the population in which the services could draw their personnel. Maintaining the units the old way became impossible without stripping the numbers down big time.

I agree with the redneck. The military needs the support of their society as much as society needs the support of the military. This not only effects the recruitment and morale of new soldiers, but also molds future political reformations of the military or national security strategy.

This is especially important in a democratic society, as many politicians would formulate decisions based on populist appeals. An example of this is President Roh Moo Hyun taking advantage of the general masses hostility against our OWN armed forces thereby implementing populist policies that detooth our defense capability.

Tell me about it... the way things were going it looked like RoKMC wouldn't last another 10 years. Anyone who could leave and start something outside of the military were packing up to leave. I knew a bunch of senior drill instructors (I still talk to one of them) and they're all more or less bent on leaving.
Some people who opt to choose career are leaving and joining the Army instead.

Hated South Korea for gutting the Corps there. Hated civilians.

And the news about some civilian who purposely rammed his jeep into two Marines, killing one, just to steal their guns sure didn't improve my view about our civilian society at all.

Sooner or later, some ******** politician is going to implement a VOLUNTEER SYSTEM into our nation.

I heard that a guy stole weapons from Marines on guard and wondered how that happened. I figured the guy who stole it had to kill them somehow to get to it and looks like I was right.
The guys should have been more alert... but then again if you see cars day in and day out and there is no real threat level you can get complacent. I think our boys should be given a more lenient ROE when it comes to managing problematic civilians.
Can you tell me more about the incident?
Also, what service do you hail from?

I'm not so clear on the details, it seems the story is slightly different depending on who reports it.

It didn't really take much skill to take the weapons off the marines. He just hit them from behind in his jeep while they were walking.

From one version of the story, the suspect tried to steal the weapons off from one marine who was still alive, the marine resisted the attempt but the suspect stabbed several several times on the face and stomach, but he still wouldn't let go. Finally, the suspect gave up and went to the other marine who was dead and took off his weapons and drove off.

What was the motive of his crime? It was because he was depressed and wanted to take out his anger on someone, the marines were just unlucky. It shows the lack of respect he has for servicemen.

The good news is he is under military jurisdiction so he his ****ed.

I haven't served yet, I was just a military cadet. But I'm different from most civilians.

I'm not a cadet now because I want to focus on learning martial arts (right now, I'm learning Kyuksuldo and Aikido), there's another reason but I don't want to give any information away because it's personal.

I'm still young so I have plenty of time left before I join the military. I want to hold off until I earn my first blackbelt in Kyuksuldo. I'm planning on entering a college or university next year as an ordinary student only, that way I can still practice the martial arts styles that I love while I study.

Here's me in my Kyuksuldo dojang, I'm the one in the white belt, don't mind my form I now know my hand positioning was all wrong (damn you taekwondo!!!):





As you can see this picture was taken two months ago, and I'm still a white belt. So I still have a long way to go before I reach blackbelt.
Here's where we keep our uniforms:

Hey, thanks for the news on that. I didn't hear about it until later.
My old man mentioned it but talked about it to a friend of his like we Marines were a bunch of idiots. He hates the military.
Now I know.
The guy who was hit and stabbed and still clung to his weapon should be commended. I know full well why he did not shoot but that's OPSEC and I'd rather have it not float around here.
I'm going to Korea for a short while in early January. If you're interested I'll buy you some beers.
I've never heard of Kyuksuldo before. Looks interesting. I wonder if it's anything like Krav Maga. I hope to be instructor level certified in Krav Maga some day.
I'll shoot you a PM on some possibilities in the military. If you have any questions about the Marines, you can ask me any time.

So many ****ing idiots. What could make someone decide to do that? The one that held his weapon was an honorable man.

The guy is looking to serve at least 5 years in prison, considering the amount of publicity this has, he more likely serve a harsher sentence. Good riddance too.

I've never heard of Kyuksuldo before. Looks interesting. I wonder if it's anything like Krav Maga. I hope to be instructor level certified in Krav Maga some day.

I don't know about Krav Maga but Kyuksuldo is brutally beautiful, it has everything from weapons techniques to ground work without any flash that you'd expect from Tuk Gong Moosul.

Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoCiKKCB8bQ

We have two professional fighters in Spirit MC, both of whom I personally know. Here's one from the wealterweight championship match (he lost though), he's the same person you see in the previous picture:

http://www.spiritmc.org/UserFiles/Im...13_14m_101.jpg
http://www.spiritmc.org/UserFiles/Im...13_14m_102.jpg
http://www.spiritmc.org/UserFiles/Im...13_14m_103.jpg

I have to hotlink the pictures because the spiritmc website doesn't directly link the webpage with the photos.