Thoughts on the Loss of Faith and Confidence

This has been kind of a downer morning...
I saw this piece on Halliburton, then I read this post in a blog of an OIF returnee, and then I re-read Tamar's post from back in January. I didn't do all of this on purpose, of course, but I seem to be seeing more and more in this vein lately.
The legend is that our government is a "government of the people by the people for the people," and that the purpose of that government is "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." I believed in that for a lot of years. I wonder if I might not have had some development delay... I believed Eisenhower, Kennedy, Goldwater, Nixon, Ford, Carter... never Johnson nor anyone since.
I had been thinking about Halliburton last night as I drove home... how they seem to be doing business everywhere... in Iraq before the war, in Iraq during the war, in Iran, kind of like cockroaches... if anything survives Armageddon it will probably have a Halliburton logo on it.
We did business with Marcos... we did business with Noriega... we did business with Hussein... We didn't take him to task when he put that missile into USS Stark... We don't get principled until we're done using them. We... Who is we? Is this my government?
I've been working on a post on why I think we need to reinstate the draft... for a number of reasons... but would I let either of my kids go? Should I?
I'm retired military, and... to be honest... what I resent most of all at this point... is that their conduct has led me to ask these questions. I'm supposed to be able to follow them anywhere, and obey their orders without hesitation.

*Update* This is thought-provoking.