Heh, hadn't thought of it that way, but I can see it. I went to high school with a guy that recently got out of the army after serving as an MP for five years or so. One of the first things he wrote on facebook when he got out was that he wished he'd never gone and would the army please give him back those years and that he was getting tired of people thanking him for his service, as he'd volunteered. Sure, I think it's important to have a capable and willing military on hand, just in case, but the way things are going I really think that strong diplomacy and not electing a bunch of cartoonishly rich bitches or their patsies into office are the way to go.
With the current state of the world and the geopolitical position the US stands in, the military functions mostly as leverage for our foreign policy. I believe the "veterans protect our freedoms" rhetoric is a passive form of fear mongering, as it implies there are always people trying to take our freedoms away. While there are fringe groups that exist in the world who would consider doing so a victory, it is typically not directly viable for them. I have serious doubts that any one nation is plotting to invade and relegate the population to subclass citizens, or destroy us completely, or whatever the result may be if our freedoms weren't protected by the glorious military. Maybe I am naive. It is indirectly possible for them to take away our freedoms, however, if you look at 9/11 and the legislation that followed it. I am thanked for my service often and it has left me a little jaded, although I respect the sentiment and rarely doubt that it comes from a genuine place. I am worried that it's become a "bless you" type of response as with sneezing, and that people don't really know why they say it. There's a strange cognitive dissonance about veterans. Many people I have encountered have a belief that they truly want to serve their country and protect their friends and families in sheer selflessness because even though they are human that's all they want to do with their life. Somehow they believe this is accomplished when we shoot drunk driving Iraqis who fire a pistol loaded with blanks out of their sun roof, or pay an ex-Mujahideen leader $200,000 every 3 months to turn and run a pro-American militia until we've left and he can immigrate to the US. But it doesn't matter because we are free and they are doing it and not me because I don't even agree with it and God bless America. In my experience, most service members joined because war has always been romanticized to them, because they are lost in life, because they think shooting guns and engaging in combat is bad ass, because they've had an urge to kill someone, because they want their college paid for, or because they've burned all other bridges in their lives. The very few who legitimately joined to serve their country quickly have that attitude sweat out of them when they hit the reality of their new lifestyle and see what the day to day is like. I think it's mostly a product of hindsight in reference to how Vietnam veterans were treated as well as great politics. If you're a "patriot" that supports foreign policy and the decisions the people in power make under any circumstance, have at it.
I wondered if you'd find this, after having seen you mention that you'd served. I'm glad to get your perspective. This is along the lines of what I've heard veterans I know saying. If you don't mind me asking, why did you personally join?I am thanked for my service often and it has left me a little jaded, although I respect the sentiment and rarely doubt that it comes from a genuine place. I am worried that it's become a "bless you" type of response as with sneezing, and that people don't really know why they say it.
Don't mind at all, but I hardly have a satisfying answer for myself. I just had no direction after high school, no will to continue on to college, and recognized that I had serious deficits that I thought the military could help me fix because of how regimented the lifestyle is. I knew that I was heading toward a poor quality of life filled with unhappiness if I didn't find a way to address the way I existed. My decision probably wasn't my only option, but it worked for me. And I won't have to worry about post-degree debt with the GI Bill.
I'm sorry, please feel free to correct me, but I just have to comment because this post made me pretty mad. I do not come from a military family, nor a very patriotic/American values-type family, nor an American family at all. But I will always stop to shake hands with a man or woman in uniform, and express my gratitude.
Just as you said, we are thanking the troops. We are not thanking the greedy, sick corporation that commands these men. We are showing our love for the boots on the ground, with families back home, with their lives on the line. I'm sitting in an internationally renowned conservatory writing this comment. Some 20-year-old kid is hiding behind a rock to protect himself from machine gun fire, because some dickhead up the chain told him to. He could quit, go AWOL, shoot himself. But he doesn't, and he follows orders because he wants to. He's doing it for his people, his family, his friends, his nation. He's doing it for me. I owe him. So don't tell me I shouldn't be thanking them. That said, I understand the specific problem in the article, regarding NFL and MLB etc. using these people as a means of advertisement and attention. That's wrong. It shouldn't be stuffed in your face, it shouldn't be marketed to you. But I think you should be doing it anyway out of gratitude, and love.
What he is saying is an extreme consequence of what the article was talking about, which I agree is a major issue. I was just trying to explain the reason some people feel the need to express our respect to service members.
And by sharing this article with you, I am pointing out that service members get it, but they knew what they were signing up for and that they are individual people doing jobs. Not all of them are out there cowering behind rocks and getting shot at. Treating all of them as such, detracts from very important jobs that they did do.