I hate this/these wars and I am sick that the US military is out there at all. I don’t think anyone’s freedoms are being protected at this point.
That being said, I do thank the troops for signing up and ensuring that there is no draft. Militaries are a fact for the US, and if no one signed up, no matter how much it would suck, there would be a draft. That is horrific to me. So I thank them for keeping me and my draft-age friends and relatives safe from the horrors of war.
My dad is a Vietnam vet who was drafted. Every day I hate what happened to him (he is alive, but you know what I mean about what “happened” to him). I thank today’s servicepeople for stepping up to take on that job so an unwilling person doesn’t have to go through it. I know what it did to my dad and I know what it is doing to them. I find it honorable.
Remember one thing. It is not as black and white as some people make it out to be. For the last few years we have been rebuilding the country. I know it is the knee jerk reaction to say that we were only fixing what we broke but that is too simplistic. If all we had to do was fix the buildings we damaged it would have been done years ago. What we found was an infrastructure that was being held together with spit and duct tape. All the money was going into palaces and the world’s biggest mosque for the ego of one man. We have been working with the Iraqis to build a better country. If you want to argue that they were better off living under a dictator and then his sons well into the future, fine. That has been debated over and over and I won’t do it again, just look up some of the old threads. But if you think that troops are coming over here to murder and pillage you are wrong. That is not what is happening. (of course there is a lot more to it. Things that went wrong. Things that went right. But most has been said before. Much will fall on deaf ears. And I’m a slow typist)
I have been through airports when going home on leave and I have been thanked by strangers. I am polite but it makes me feel uncomfortable. It is not needed. But I’ll take the beer.
I don’t think that. I feel no hostility or animosity towards military personel over there at all. My lack of the specific emotion of gratitude is not based on any feeling that they did anything wrong (I blame the civilian leadership, not them), but on the fact that the action didn’t give me any personal benefit (or protection) that I need to say “thank you” for. That doesn’t mean I think badly of them. I just see them as victims of circumstance. Thanking them would be like thanking miners who got trapped in a cave-in.
I don’t think I have ever had a problem with what you have said in the past. I don’t see a need for thanks. It did not start with the current conflict. I saw it’s roots in the late 80s at least. It is a reaction to those that were openly hostile to soldiers in years past. As long as someone isn’t openly hostile to me I have no problem with them.
Question: is thanking the troops the same thing as congratulating them for a job well done? Because I’ve done (and been the recipient of) the latter*, but I’ve never thought to do the former.
Not American troops and not an American war, so don’t drag me into your fight.
Oh, boy. DT, how the hell do you manage to pick that paintbrush up all by yourself without using a crane?
In any group, you’re going to have a bell curve. No matter how you skew it, you’re always going to have some people who fit under the left side of the curve (this is math, not politics). To say that the actions of those people are indicative of the actions of the whole body is pure stupidity.
Would you say that because a couple of teenagers do drugs that all teenagers do drugs?
Would you say that because a couple of EMTs steal from patients in the ambulance that all EMTs steal?
You probably would. Yes, we have had some soldiers who have done things that are disgraceful. And they were dealt with. But you totally disregard the soldiers in Iraq who have done things like build hospitals, water treatment plants, etc. and that have raised the standard of living for the Iraqi people. Nope, they’re just thugs in uniform like everyone else.
No, it’s not the same. In the case of Iraq, the job we’re thanking the troops for really wasn’t particularly well-done (though their individual performances may well have been), but that wasn’t their fault.
Say that your superiors had ordered you to strap chicken-feather wings to your arms and fly to Venus, because they had determined that this was the best way to battle the Martian invaders, and furthermore they claimed a secret understanding of gravity that would make your task possible. Even though you stood in that field all day flapping like a maniac and yet never got off the ground, others might nonetheless thank you for your sincere efforts in attempting to carry out your duty.
I haven’t read a single response, I’m giving you mine:
You should always be grateful to the people who are in the military, no matter where they are or how they got there, the fundamental fact is that they have chosen to (potentially) put their lives on the line for their country, which is your country. That their sacrifice may be misused is not their doing.
I would never in a million years serve in the military, unless it were guaranteed to be in some capacity that would never put me in harm’s way. If there was a possibility that I’d be sent to fight or even trained to carry a gun, I’d bail.
So I’m extremely grateful to the people who serve. They are willing to put their asses out for me and I’m completely unwilling (in body, not spirit) to do the same for them. I’m a coward, and I have no problem admitting it.
Some skimming of the thread has shown me what I think is a fallacy… which is focusing on individual wars, battles, actions. None of that should enter into your consideration of the people who serve, and whether you are grateful.
See my previous post; someone must do that job. (Arguing that countries don’t need armies is such a different discussion, let’s not go there.) You should always be grateful that there are people who are willing to do it, who are doing it, period. That gratitude should always exist, and it should never be tied to what the military is doing at any given time, as you said, it’s the civilian leadership that decides that.
Be grateful for this: if no one was willing to volunteer, the civilian leadership would institute a draft, which would have scooped you up at some point, or your brother, you r dad, your kid…maybe it would be a dual-sex draft, like Israel’s, and everyone would be subject to it. Are you grateful that’s not the case? Then you have reason to be grateful to the military 24/7, irrespective of their mission.
I am profoundly ashamed of the job the military has been forced to do the past 6 years. I’m horrified and grief stricken over it, it is so ugly and so wrong and so outside what I know America to be, I can’t describe it.
And it doesn’t bear on my feelings of gratitude to the people who have served in it one bit.
Cloth, did you really expect anything else from him? You and I have had our disagreements, but you’re an OK guy. Just take some advice (not that I can afford to advise on this) and just write it off as the same old broken record going off again. You knew what his “take” was gonna be beforehand, as did all of us.
The question isn’t why you should, it’s why you think you shouldn’t. If you don’t feel any gratitude, then keep your trap shut. If you do and are compelled to share that gratitude, do so with a donation to help the families of fallen soldiers. For all you know the person you’re thanking was a lawyer that never left the local base, and while thanking him or her wouldn’t be out of line per se, it might make them feel uncomfortable.
I think the gratitude thing is static amongst normal, decent citizens of the world who realize without them and their ilk, that our nations would not be free places. Those openly hostile to organized military, especially here in the states, are in the midst of a great irony, indeed.
Ya know, you’re right, as a free person you should be able to say what you like when you like, but ferchrissakes, it’s simple decency, something ones mama shoulda mentioned, if you’ve got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. Especially to someone who, at least in general, has chosen a path where he or she may die to defend the freedom you enjoy.
You probably ought to take him at his word. For all you know, he might have spent his enlistment period putting babies on spikes or building an elaborate narcotics distribution network or something.
Ever since Dio mentioned he was in the military for a while I’ve been picturing him as Mark Ruffalo’s character from The Last Castle - who was court-martialed for running a gambling and drug smuggling ring.
No offense, Dio. You’ll probably get a kick out of this anyway…
My husband is thanked for his service every time he leaves the house. I think that’s nice. But in my opinion, the real question is, is it wrong to NOT thank every soldier or veteran you see?
