Throwing caution to the winds- I think I understand what Al R is talking about and to a degree agree with him. What I see in the majority of posts on this thread however is apathy. You are primarily arguing that you can't be bothered to raise the profile of the Services or the country.
The quote about letting others take the limelight is based upon a false modesty, which can only be achieved when ones country is at the centre of an empire on which the sun never sets. People got on with the job quietly then in the knowledge that we could say 'look at me like that again and I'll black your eye!' Otherwise lets just hide in a corner and remember the days when we had something to be proud of. On the whole I like Americans and I respect the pride they have in their flag. In many ways they are today as respectul of their country and its institutions as Britons were a hundred years ago. Now we are uncomfortable with that and try to appear sophisticated by laughing at ourselves. Really all we do is indoctrinate a sense of guilt and failure, compounded by being very poor relations trying to sit at the big table.