Thank you Veterans

[fitfool]

To all who have donned the uniform of our country,
Thank you for your service and sacrifice. I wish you could be at home with the ones you love.

Comments

don't forget

[writertobe.livejournal.com]

Don't forget those that have already served, came home and didn't enjoy the adulation the troops seem to enjoy today...

Re: don't forget

[evilbeard.livejournal.com]

I don't.

Re: don't forget

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Nor I. I was including them in my thanks though that last sentence is aimed at those currently deployed.

[murphyb.livejournal.com]

I second that as one who has experienced it

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Did you participate in any ceremonies this year?

[murphyb.livejournal.com]

Nah I'm not really one to go around proclaiming that I am a vet to everyone I see. In fact I usually don't mention it in conversation. But I have noticed through doing a job hunt and interviewing with almost a dozen places that people don't really appreciate veterans like they did in our previous wars (excluding Vietnam, of course). Once someone finds out I've done 2 tours in Iraq, they usually ask a stupid question like, "So did you shoot anyone?" right off the bat or they'll start giving their views on the politics of the war as if I could do something about it. Damn that was such a run-on sentence.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Oh funny...I had viewed prior military service as the ultimate fraternity (and sorority now) since so many people have served. Or maybe it's just because the town I grew up in had a good number of high school graduates join some branch of the military after graduation so I assumed there was this whole network I wasn't privy to. I wasn't sure if it was because I wasn't part of that network or if they just didn't talk about it but I don't remember hearing anyone's war stories. But on Veterans Day and Memorial Day, I'd look around and realize how many people were connected to the military either through their own or someone else's (who was close to them) service. (oh I played in the marching band so we played in the parades and observed the ceremonies every year.)

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

He's right. This is especially true of the spouses, children, family and friends of veterans who do and sacrifice so much to make the work of these veterans possible.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, it seems almost harder for those who wait at home. I know they're not being shot at but they also don't have activities that demand their full and immediate attention to keep themselves alive. Well, maybe some of them do. But yeah...don't forget the folks back home too :)

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

I think you're right, it may be the hardest and least appreciated job in the military.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Thanks. But do the comments of some stranger thousands of miles away really do anything for troop morale?

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it just might. I remember that my people in Afghanistan got a certain amusement and sometimes a little bit of a lift reading usenet and some people's comments in blogs and websites.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

True enough. I just figured the people currently deployed would somewhat resent those of us going about our comfortable lives and not stepping up and taking a turn. Sometimes a part of me feels guilty that I don't want to join up so someone else gets sent out twice or even three times instead.

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

That's a kind of interesting point. I think, and I can't really say I speak for anyone but a few people I know well, that the only people who are annoying that way, are the people who try to tell us what we're doing, how to do it, or say they support us out of one side of their mouths, and then bad mouth what we're doing or have done out of the other.
I know that on the way back from Afghanistan I was humbled and thankful for the many expressions of support that were given by total strangers. When I came home I recieved total and unreserved support from people, I wish that I could say the same for the men and women coming home from Iraq these days. They've been at it a lot longer and have IMHO worked near miracles in the not even two years we've been there.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Is it possible that they support you and the rest of the troops in that they respect your service and sacrifice but they disagree with the administration's policies that sent troops over? I fall in that camp. Sometimes I don't even disagree that it was necessary to topple Saddam Hussein and yet I really wish we hadn't rushed in the beginning and could've assembled more assistance from other countries to help spread out the financial and human toll. It just breaks my heart every time I hear of the casualties, both military and civilian, physical and mental.

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

I don't really think it would have been possible to have gotten more support for enforcing the treaty of Safwan. There was too much bribe money and too many economic interests in Europe that were profiting by trade with Iraq. At the same time Saddam Hussein had been becoming increasingly provocative. He'd even begun "lighting up" our aircraft with targeting radar and by February 2003 (a month before the war) had fired on our aircraft with both guns and missiles a couple of times. All of this, counted heavily in the Middle East toward making his claims that we were weak and indecisive and that he would ultimately win his war with us increasingly credible. Which given our attempts to secure agreements with Yemen, Muscat, Oman, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and other countries in and around the region to allow us to operate against al Qaida in those countries less and less likely,
The main thing is, that regardless of how we got there, we are there, we overthrew a government and to my way of thinking it is not right at so many levels for us to leave until we have a viable government in place in Iraq. Now my personal preference is that the government of Iraq be a Federation of states with representative rule. I feel that it would be criminal for us to do anything less than to at the very least be sure that there is a viable government in Iraq.
To do that, the Soldiers will need to be there until that can happen. It won't happen on any timetable (in fact I think we've rushed the job). It took time (almost 20 years) to do what we're doing for Iraq in Germany and Japan in the aftermath of WWII. The majority of Soldiers serving in Iraq see this and understand it. The fact of the matter is, that the fact that the insurgents must terrorize the people who should be sympathetic to them in order to secure their cooperation shows that they have little popular support which in turn means in terms of guerrilla warfare they're losing. Where they're winning is here in the US where if we abandon Iraq now will cause us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

I agree that now that we're in there, we're stuck there for the long haul (another reason I wish we'd cultivated more allies to share the occupation/rebuilding burden). I'm glad a lot of the soldiers there understand it's not going to be some lightning operation. I'm not sure if the same could be said of the folks back home. I feel like we're still being told that any day now we'll be able to hand things over to the Iraqis to sort out. I wish they would just give a more realistic timeline. Then again, if they were to say up front that it'll take 10+ years at the current spending levels, I wonder if popular support for the war would decrease or if people would hunker down and adjust expectations accordingly.

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

I recall at least two speeches by the President both prior to the interim government's elections where he told the American public that we'd be there for several years and has usually talked about "staying the course" and the "long haul". I think no one pays attention and if they do it's considered a "bad thing" to have to commit forces to a multi-year mission. This has resulted in a rush to turn over the security mission to hastily formed, poorly vetted, and less than thoroughly trained Iraqi forces. And while they're certainly taking a heavy load, I worry that too little time for training in not just tactics but in dealing with the civilian populace especially among the non-Kurdish Sunnis in the country which may lead to abuses that could result in something similar to the "Vietnamization" of that war where the local forces collapsed before a highly trained and experienced enemy. One of the things about an insurgency, is that it is very fluid. Right now, we're way on top of them and forcing them to be defensive and to have to resort to terrorizing the local populace in order to maintain even a subsistence level of support. But that could change tomorrow should something come up that increases popular support for the enemy. So timelines are meaningless and there is no linear or geometric progression. This is why this kind of warfare is often referred to as being "asymetric" by tacticians.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

That reminds me...I was going to put together some packages for Thanksgiving/Christmas. Some time ago I had found a website where they had instructions on mailing things to specific soldiers posted around the world (not just Afghanistan/Iraq). Soldiers could post wish lists and their current address and stuff. But I lost that link...is that related to the 'for any airman' package you got? I guess I'll poke around on google again and see if I find it.

[cowboymarine.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the support and the kind thoughts.