How should they be treated? They are fundementally uneducated (talking about the common soldier here) people who are getting paid to be trained to kill people whilst being reprogrammed through training to do it efficiently.
They should be treated as people who put there lives on the line for not a lot of money ..... with a little respect and given the tools they need to do the job.
The Army, and indeed the services as a whole, are sometimes a safety net for those in society with few other options in life where a job, pay and a pension is there for them.
I can get a job as private security over there and get paid 2k+ a week while a private soldier doesn't get that in a month. Quite sickening.
Danger money alone makes a private soldier worth 30k a year basic.
The current salary of a soldier is a debate in itself but I can't see how it is a crap job ? I know at least a dozen people who are ex-services and every one of them loved it.
There will be those who hate it without a doubt but the things I have heard are pretty supportive.