First of all, military people are not the only ones defending the fragile rights of the people. Policemen do, too. And lawyers - yes, yes, sleezeballs as we all come to think of them, they are the ones that make sure that the police obeys the laws of privacy, does not torture suspects, and that judges do not convict people who are innocent. And what about the judges themselves?

And what about all the people who are members of voluntary organizations whose purpose is to uphold certain rights? I'm a member of an organization for the freedom of religion, and another one for quality of government. There are other organizations that promote worker rights, women's equality, and so on, and so forth. Why only the military?

Mind you, I served 5 years in my country's military, I'm not saying the above because I am in danger of being excluded.

Another problem is that military men seem to see politics through military spectacles. We are cursed, in Israel, by having too many generals leading the country, and too many people who vote for these generals. And why shouldn't they? The overwhelming majority of Israeli voters have been in the military and learned to trust and obey generals. The more intelligent of those have probably also been to some commanding school - I've been an officer myself - and therefore learned "military thought". It's a way of viewing problems in terms of force, and if you're not careful, it taints the way you think of politics later on. But politics have to do not only with force, and you don't focus only on the enemy. Our economy is in shambles, human rights are under great strain, and corruption is so common that people accept it as a matter of course. If you are a civilian, you may think about national resources, monetary policy and ethics. As a military man, you always put these aside in order to "solve the problems with the enemy". I'm sure you are aware of the death toll here in Israel...

Finally, there is a problem of inequality here. There are people who are not able to serve in the military - the disabled, immigrants who came at an age too old for service, people who are excluded from the military for security reasons (in Israel, the Arab population is generally banned from joining the military, on the assumption that statistically, there will be higher motivation for them to "help" their relatives among the enemy). Are these people to be banned from deciding their future?

However, I must say that such voices as yours are heard in Israel quite often - not always for denying the vote, but often for denying lesser rights. This happens mainly when there are large populations that dodge military service (which is supposed to be compulsary here), for various reasons, but still get to enjoy all the privileges of the other citizens. The result is another type of inequality: the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish mother will never have to bury her sons and daughters who were killed in action. She can sleep well while her sons are going through religious studies and their daughters are indoctrinated into obedient housewives. The regular Jewish mother has to toss and turn at night, wondering whether she will hear the fateful knock on the door, telling her to come and identify her son at the coroner's. You can imagine that people are a bit upset about all that.