>"Have you ever killed a man? It takes a lot of balls"

Killing someone does not equal skill. It does not take balls. It takes a person who is willing to sell their ethics, or doesn't have a problem killing a fellow human in the first place.
Being in the military does not take skill mentally or physically. Sure, if you can't count you can't do it and if you can't lift a bowling ball you can't do it. But YOU DON'T EVEN NEED A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION to join! Is that what you mean by "you have to be very skilled mentally"? That completing junior high school demonstrates a high level of mental skill? As far as physical ability goes, the military is certainly more taxing. But, ANY able-bodied person between 18 and 25 who is healthy can pass the tests easily. ANYBODY. If anybody can do it, it's not skilled. It's normal. You don't tell people that you're physically skilled because you can tie your shoelace. Anybody can. And anybody who is healthy can pass the military's test and be a soldier. It's just like the test for a driver's license - sure it's possible to fail, but as long as you're not an idiot and there's nothing wrong with your body, you can pass it. Anybody can. There's nothing "skilled" about it.
And swim a whole mile? A whole mile?! Oh geez, yeah that's pretty awe inspiring.

I comment because service members always go fishing for respect and praise and acting like they do what they do for the good of the country. They set the system up to treat all people who serve as some kind of heroes, when the reality is that only a few are. And I can't respect any of them because they take paychecks in exchange for killing whoever they are told to without thinking about whether it's right or wrong.

Soldiers saying things like "it takes balls to kill a man" is the reason I comment.
It takes a coward to kill a man. It takes balls to stand up for what is right in the face of adversity.