>>As an european, we often are wondering what military has to do with politics?
It seems that if you have a history in the military, you are a better politician than the other. Why ?
Being military is a kudos thing in the US. It's just a cultural thing. I quite like it: a culture that still respects institutions, has class. Other cultures may believe that respecting nobody in particular is egalitarian and modern, but it's also part of that "Atlas Shrugged" tendency that drives away the capable and puts the mean-spirited greys in charge.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
