Civilian vs. Military

This refelction is in response to 93 day’s Week 10 Reflection.
I wrote a paper once on whether or not the U.S. entered WWII soon enough, considering the moral injustice of the Holocaust. As I approached the paper I realized that it came down to the same issue you have discussed above; our boys or their boys? I came to the conclusion that there is a distinct difference between civilian blood and military blood. An individual that is in the U.S. military is armed for battle. Though at the time of WWII there was a draft in effect, now the members of the U.S. military have all joined on their own accord. A civilian, say a victim of the Holocaust, is unarmed and helpless. Its easy to see how those gassed to death in Auschwitz are drastically different from those killed in the line of duty.
That being said, not all civilians are as innocent and guiltless as the victims of the Holocaust. A world where guerrilla warfare, suicide bombings, extremist groups and terrorist organizations face our troops daily is not only scary but also makes it difficult to draw the line between whose blood is more important.
As a human rights activist, I believe that human lives are precious, yet its impractical to refuse to embrace the unfortunate fact that when innocent lives are endangered, it usually takes the acts of empowered lives to trade blood for blood.
The point is, though I understand your emotional appeal by talking about the Kentucky mother, I must point out that military personnel have sworn to give their lives for their country when asked to do so, and if America decides to spread democratic ideals, or help an ally, or halt an evil dictator, so be it. Our service men and women ay down their lives daily for whatever America decides to fight for.
I definitely agree that the U.S. must act wisely and purposefully in the international arena, since political decisions made affect individual lives. However, I think the political decisions made should revolve around defending our morals and not around safe guarding our troops.