My sister sent me this video: http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/shortmovie.php
What’s your take on it?
As a vet myself, I… well I’ll wait and hear some responses first.
Leave Bush, Obama, Hillary and McCain out of your response, please. Tired.
I personally feel no gratitude towards servicemen for any of their efforts in Iraq. They are doing nothing I appreciate or desire, and to the contrary, are acting in support of a policy I despise. Why should I be grateful for someone for simply doing their job, in support of a horrifically misguided policy?
In fact, given today’s all-voluntary military, a small part of me almost resents folks who sign up for the military, because in some small respect their willingness to serve made it possible for the current administration to piss away their lives in misadventure.
I suppose for people who appreciate military people, there’s nothing wrong with some sort of signal. I would hope that there is no expectation or repercussion for not doing it, since I would never participate. I don’t support the troops or what they are doing or what they have chosen to do with their lives. But that’s my own opinion and I would just opt out of honoring or “saluting” them.
This. This in spades.
Meh. I’d rather pressure my congressional delegation to make sure that military pay COLAs are the same size as those for GSA employees.
Yeah, I’d feel pretty weird if people started “saluting” me. Most of the time, soldiers are basically just doing their jobs. Those fat cows I see in uniform wheeling their kids around the local Safeway are more than likely admin clerks who spend their days screwing up other soldiers’ pay & paperwork.
That’s not to say enlisting in the military is just like any other job though. That’s bullshit. McDonald’s gives you a uniform, but no way is that the same way that the military owns your life.
I hate it. It’s sentimental.
If you want to show your support, audit a defense contractor.
I feel a lot of gratitude toward servicemen and women. They’re doing a job I wouldn’t want to do. I don’t think I would walk up to a complete stranger and give the Romulan Salute or anything though.
They have my respect and admiration.
Why would I feel any gratitude whatsoever to people who are doing their job, after having willingly taken a job with a ‘company’ that has an enforced policy of discrimination and is enabling an unnecessary war?
I wouldn’t work as a garbage collector - it’s not a job I would do. Do I feel like I owe them some sort of gratitude? No, because I pay my taxes, which in turn pay them a fare wage. They work, they get paid, everyone’s happy. Same for the military, other than the part where I benefit from the garbage collector’s work and not the soldier’s.
Well, they do a lot more than just fight wars. And the particular war at present in Iraq isn’t the only war your military has ever been involved in. Sometimes war is necessary for the right reasons. Afghanistan comes to mind: that little thing called WWII also.
This does get me thinking though. I DO in fact thank my garbage collector on the occasion where I’m outside and he arrives. I give him a thank you kind of wave after he empties my trash, and he waves back. I do the same to the bus driver for the kids. I say thank you to waiters who are also just doing their job. Store clerks, people who hold doors open, bus boys, hairdressers, dentists. Gee, I thank them all for just doing their job…
I do appreciate the sacrifices that troops are making, even though I oppose the war. But that movie made me want to barf.
psst… military raises have been equal or greater to GS scale increases for every year since 1982!
My guess is a lot of these men and women signed up after 9/11 out of sheer patriotism, love of country. Politics, where they’d serve, none of that figured even remotely into the equation of their decision. In fact, there probably are more than a few who themselves wish our involvement was restricted to only those places where our legitimacy was unquestionable and that it was the Generals and not politicians doing the planning, implemention and timely extraction.
The salute looks stupid and patronizing so I won’t do it. But I do occasionally give a soldier I see in an airport or on the street a short, appreciative nod of the head if our gazes meet. Putting your life on the line goes beyond justification of a paycheck. I do appreciate what they do and recognize it despite the distraction of nauseating miscalculation and mismanagement by an inept administration.
I just love how threads like this bring out the haters.
That being said, the problem here is that people by and large don’t know very many people currently in the military. Some people don’t even know a lot of veterans. So knowing just how to express any kind of kinship with them, let alone gratitude, is hard for lots of people.
Even the generic “thank you for your service” that I get from some people and that some right wingers like Sean Hannity toss around all the time rubs me wrong. How the hell do you know what I did? How do you know its value? Similarly, this referring to all soldiers as heroes grates on me as well. I meet people all of the time who did things I can’t even imagine - my VFW post includes Iwo Jima veterans. My own service was perfectly honorable yet humble by comparison. Save the hero comments for people that earn them.
This silly little salute is akin to these, and I don’t like it. Heaven forbid people actually talk to a soldier or sailor or Marine - that would be hard. Gesturing to them is easy and empty, so we’ll opt for it.
Another gesture comes to mind. It’s unfriendly, to say the least, but at least it’s honest.
Yes, I DO hate this war.
Everyone hates war. Well, mostly everyone. I don’t think hating war was what Mr. Moto was talking about.
And I thought I had restrained myself, rewriting my response a few times. Oh well.
No one appears to be expressing any hatred for the troops. “Lack of gratitude” does not in any sane person’s mind equal “hatred.”
Do you have a cite for that? It certainly doesn’t match my memories of military service in the 90s.
My own memories, which may not apply to the whole military, were that the pay raises were fine but that allowances weren’t keeping up at all.
I think they have done a lot since the late-1990s to address this, but I don’t know too many details.
I think Mr. Moto pegged it. I’ve been around the military all my life and can’t imagine not having the utmost respect for those who serve. But there may be a huge precentage of Americans who don’t have much exposure to servicemen/women.
No disrespect for trash collectors but military people do live with one huge factor that sets them apart. Their job could very well kill them.
Don’t like the Romulan salute thing. I usually just send a smile and a nod their way.