For folks who were already masochists.

But the fairytale of military service is that these Elite Commandos are somehow the most virtuously hard-working Protestants. They reached their positions through dedication and integrity and discipline all fueled by a patriotic fervor.

The truth is that its a kind-of live-ammo Reality TV game show. Tons of behind-the-scenes cheating, nepotism and brown-nosing for promotions, top talent getting backstabbed to clear space for the more ruthless competitors. The end result is a bunch of burned-out careerist sociopaths, more concerned with that next brass ring than any national project.

This sort of article does nothing to deter ruthless social climbers, sure. But it might disabuse the next Pat Tillman from giving up his football career to take two rounds in the back of the head in Afghanistan.