I saw this on a Facebooker's wall:
In other news, I went to check the mail box and noticed it was empty then realized that is was some day to honor some people for joining up as pawns for mass murder and all we have to show for it are closed banks and no mail.
That is some harsh shit. FWIW, you don't want to say shit like this around veterans especially the ones who had buddies KIA. But I will try and address the issue the commenter was raising.
I am antiwar. This is not the same as being a pacifist. I believe in having a strong national defense. I think we should be like Switzerland having a strong army, an armed citizenry, and a foreign policy that stresses minding your own business. It is that last part that makes me antiwar.
Invading another country, blowing shit up, and killing people doesn't result in anything good. This does not win hearts and minds. In fact, it radicalizes people who previously didn't give a fuck. How would you react if your house was blown to shit and your family members were killed?
On the flip side, veterans returning from Vietnam were subjected to being called "baby killers." That is way over the line. The fact is that the blame for this rests not with our military but with civilian leadership that gets elected by our population and gets supported by your tax dollars. If we are going to go down the line of moral equivalence, every time you get withholding from your paycheck you are paying for the bullets and bombs that are going to be killing someone in another part of the world. The fact is that we are all baby killers. The moral thing to do is to stop paying taxes and go to jail.
So, how should we treat our veterans? That is a bit of a conundrum. They are serving on our behalf, but I think their service does little to make us safer or to advance our liberty. They are pawns much like the rest of us. I just acknowledge that fact without praise or judgment. I think the best thing we can do for men and women in uniform is to bring them home.
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