RE: Do you think American soldiers are put on too high of a pedestal
January 17, 2017 at 11:51 am
I didn't serve. However, my brother did and saw more shit in Afghanistan and Iraq than he cares to discuss with anyone in the family other than our uncle, who had similarly harrowing experiences in Vietnam. We once spoke about this (for lack of a better way to put it) ass-kissing attitude that vets encounter, and he said he hates it. If someone thanks him for his service, he obliges them with a "You're welcome" but it makes him uncomfortable -- as if the civilians are trying to assuage their own consciences for . . . well, who knows? Not serving themselves? Allowing the politicians to get us into Iraq in the first place? Working off bad karma for how some Vietnam vets were treated?
Vets certainly deserve our thanks. But it seems to me that the best way we can thank them is to properly look out for them in the first place. And that means not allowing ourselves to be led into questionable wars of choice; not sending young men into combat with inadequate armor; not short-changing their families who struggle to hold things together in their absence; and not just paying lip service to the services and care they need when they return home.
Vets certainly deserve our thanks. But it seems to me that the best way we can thank them is to properly look out for them in the first place. And that means not allowing ourselves to be led into questionable wars of choice; not sending young men into combat with inadequate armor; not short-changing their families who struggle to hold things together in their absence; and not just paying lip service to the services and care they need when they return home.
