Happier Than Before?

I puzzle at the reflexive patriotism that seems to have become a requirement of sorts in this country.  We are asked to celebrate soldiers and the military without criticism because they are somehow responsible for our freedom.  This assertion seems questionable because the apparatus of our society, socio-economic and otherwise, is what gives us whatever freedom we may in fact possess. In this regard, our freedom, as it were, is essentially a fixed feature of the established social order.  If our freedom faces a threat, the threat is not an existential one from hostile third parties.  Any threat to our freedom is, paradoxically, from the jingoism that has swept the nation, from the jingoism that vilifies dissent, difference, and debate.  Besides, for most of us, Yeats was right:  all of this fighting in the Middle East and Central Asia will not likely "bring them loss/ or leave them happier than before."