What a great thread....very lurk friendly.
Still, I have a few things to add.
Neil....good on you for debating against so many people on such an emotionally charged subject. Hell, I'd even go so far as to say some of your comments have a degree of merit. You are right that a military is not the granter or great protector of rights (can you see the blood start boiling here)...examples are everywhere of the opposite of this (say, Argentina during the "dirty war" for example). Society as a whole through various social contracts and social institutions provides the rights, and the rule of law protects and manages them...simply speaking. Having said that, lets look at what a military in a democracy is, shall we;
The military (in our case, the CF) is the physical force behind the government....the "muscle" if you will. The CF represents the extension of the government to use force to protect or insist itself on a situation.
The government is the representation of the will of society as a whole (not just the vocal minority). Thus, by extension the CF represents the will of society to induce force to, well, get it's point across.
Society, as such, wishes to protect it's rights/freedoms/sovereignty. When society has it's sovereignty challenged, be it territorial or otherwise, it has the option to use many different avenues to solve it's issue. One of the biggest is of course diplomacy. This is where the CF becomes the protector of your rights, so pay attention. The CF acts, metaphorically, as the strong man guy standing behind the diplomat...the threat of violence (along with NATO) that adds strength to the diplomats voice (of course along with other strengths such as economics and whatnot). If diplomacy fails, and Canadian society (through the Government) deems the issue threatening enough to the sovereignty of the nation, it employs the CF...the force. In essence, the CF is the might that makes the people right.
This is why, say, Evilistan one day decides to annex Vancouver because, well, it's sick of the way we let our women drive cars. Ottawa can make all the "women can do what they want" laws it wants, but unless there's a CF that marches in and tells the soldiers of Evilstan to bugger off, those laws do no good. Take it a step further....Evilstan doesn't invade, but instead finances and encourages a proxy group to effect it's will in Vancouver (hmmm....state-sponsored terrorism/proxy wars). Sure, you fight the insurgency, but the insurgency keeps coming...eliciting its own law and judgment almost vigilante style against the populous (sort of how the Taliban currently behave). The government and thus society has lost control over it's own sovereign right to determine the rights of it's citizens....what's it to do? Write a new constitution? Whine internationally that it's getting treated "unfairly"? No, it gets fed up and utilizes it's "muscle" by hitting back against Evilstan.
Because of this usage, the CF is in fact the final line of defense for the rights and privileges of the citizenry.
The ignorance pisses people off for two reasons....they are intrinsically linked to the will of the Government which is supposed to be the will of the people. When the populous refuses to take a role in understanding it's government and its actions, it makes the members angry at the refusal of that person to self educate about their own society. For example:
IC: "you're in the army....think you'll ever have to go to Iraq?"
Army guy: "Ummm....Canada isn't in Iraq"
Army guy thinking 'do you ever watch the news? Do you have any idea what your government is up to?
Sure it's that citizens prerogative to choose ignorance, but it's still annoying seeing the lack of involvement and willful ignorance.
Further...when that ignorance manifests itself in unsolicited and wholly unsupportable opinion being thrust upon a member, it really gets to some members nerves. When attempts to educate (yes, educate....people should understand what it is their government is up to) fall on deaf ears and the ignorance continues to be offered, it's highly offensive. This would be true of any single profession that found itself the target. I'm sure police for instance get sick of hearing punk kids calling them "pigs"...an unsolicited, ignorant view directed towards the police. This thread is a manifestation of exactly the same thing.
I hope all this made sense.
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