Starship Troopers/How I feel about the military reflection

I've never been a fan of the military, and I can't say Starship Troopers is doing much to change my mind. In fact, for the first 100 pages or so (describing the trials of boot camp) I thought that it was satire criticizing the harsh techniques of the military...it was quite a shock when I realized that the author intended us to view them as positive. As for my own feelings about the military...when I really think about it, I can't deny that classism doesn't play a part. My family and most of my social circle throughout my life have been middle class or upper-middle class, the majority of people I know have basically always known that college would be the next step after high school, and no one that I know well even considered joining the military. It was basically viewed as something done by people who didn't have any other options.

Some of this might be because by the time I was a teenager, the war in Iraq had caused a pretty bad PR problem for the military. That probably just exacerbated what was already there, though. At least in my liberal small town, the military has probably been looked down on for a very long time, and this is probably the case in many parts of America. Somewhat paradoxically, in the often very Jewish communities that I was part of growing up, the Israeli military was held in very high esteem even when ours was not. In Israel, all Jewish citizens are required to serve in the military, and while non-Jews can choose there are specially privileges associated with having served in the army (which reminded me a lot of Starship Troopers.) In a society where the army is something everyone has in common, it's not surprising that it is viewed more positively...but I don't know if that's a good thing for a society.