The military is often perpetuated as the ideal of masculinity, the protector, the warrior and much of our foreign policy, which is self serving for our economic interests is hidden behind these ‘shining’ examples of manhood. I respect those who have served, but I also see they and all of us have been sold a shining ideal that is not true. Most of the deaths because of conflict throughout history could have been prevented, had mostly male leaders adhered to an ideal of cooperation and compromise, rather than dominance and enforcement.