Reply #11: In theory that sounds great. [View All]

[DaveJ]

However, after middle age people tend to develop medical problems that would hinder the troops with regard to examples you cited. Anyone with the slightest spinal weakness would be unable to tolerate driving a Humvee through the desert all day... even young soldiers have developed serious medical problems from it. Eyesight tends to go with age too so I simply would not trust them as guards or to look for IED (what are IEDs anyway?). They have slower reflexes, senility sets in, and overall I'd never trust them (politicians) with guns.

It's productive to discuss what they can do, though, because I think they should do something that involves the same level of physical risk and sacrifice that they demand from others.