As nations progress more socially things like speeding tickets and drugs seem more trivial in the great scheme of things. Getting pulled over for a speeding ticket and knowing that someone is getting stabbed in a back alley at that very moment really puts into perspective how horrible law enforcement's priorities are. The military is--more or less--an arm of a country's government, fueled by citizen volunteers. Patriotism plays a part in why the military is more revered, as well as the fact that they can't be monitored by citizens, since they're typically in a high-security base or in another continent.