“Thank You Veterans” said the sign out in front of my local Harley-Davidson dealer on Veterans Day. The owners of the veterinarian practice across the street from the Harley dealer are obviously more patriotic: They kept their “Thank You Veterans” sign up all the way to Thanksgiving.
Beginning on Veterans Day and running through Thanksgiving Day there have been stories on the news and during football games about the poor U.S. soldiers we should thank in Afghanistan and the Middle East who won’t be home to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.
Some churches had on Thanksgiving Day, or had the night before, special services in which the congregations were reminded from the pulpit to not forget to thank both veterans and the troops.
Thank them for what?
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It is generally never said. Sometimes we are told that we should thank veterans and the troops for “their service.” Other times we are told that we should thank veterans and the troops for “defending our freedoms.” On other occasions we are told that we should thank veterans and the troops for fighting “over there” so we didn’t/don’t have to fight “over here.” And still other times we are told that we should thank veterans and the troops for “keeping us safe.”
But above all we are just bombarded with “Thank You Veterans” or “Thank You Soldiers.”
Again I ask: Thank them for what?
It doesn’t seem to matter where the troops go, why they go, how long they stay, what they do when they get there, how much it costs to keep them there, how many innocent foreigners die because they went there, what physical and mental condition they will be in when they return, whether they will create more terrorists by going, whether whatever they accomplish is worth one drop of American blood, or whether they should go in the first place.
So again I ask: Thank them for what?
Should we thank them for creating more terrorists every time they maim and kill in some other country?
Should we thank them for killing thousands of civilians and keeping some of their body parts?
Should we thank them for drone strikes that regularly miss their targets?
Should we thank them for helping to carry out a reckless, belligerent, and meddling U.S. foreign policy?
Should we thank them for safeguarding the American way of life when they have nothing to do with it?
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Should we thank them for following orders when the orders are immoral?
Should we thank them for fighting unjust wars?
Should we thank them for serving Uncle Sam and not the country?
Should we thank them for sacrificing their families on the altar of the god of war?
Should we thank them for their high suicide rate?
Should we thank them for going where they had no business going?
Should we thank them for fighting senseless wars?
Should we thank them for serving as the world’s policeman, bully, and troublemaker?
Should we thank them for defending our freedoms when our freedoms are steadily eroding?
Should we thank them for expecting military discounts on all major holidays?
Should we thank them for helping to waste a trillion dollars of the federal budget every year?
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Should we thank them for fighting unnecessary wars?
Should we thank them for maintaining our First Amendment rights when they are slipping away?
Should we thank them for avenging 9/11 by maiming or killing hundreds of thousands of people who had nothing to do with it?
Should we thank them for making hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans?
Should we thank them for preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution when they do just the opposite?
Should we thank them for fighting immoral wars?
Should we thank them for being a proud member of the U.S. military?
Should we thank them for going to a country they couldn’t locate until they were sent there?
Should we thank them for being invaders?
Should we thank them for being role models for our children when they are anything but?
Should we thank them for expecting special preference in employment, and not just for government jobs?
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Should we thank them for keeping us safe when their actions make us less safe?
Should we thank them for engaging in offense instead of defense?
Should we thank them for being heroes because they kill and maim?
Should we thank them for fighting undeclared wars?
Should we thank them for destroying Iraq and Afghanistan?
Should we thank them for joining the military because they couldn’t find a real job?
Should we thank them for fighting “over there” when they didn’t have to fight to keep us from fighting “over here”?
Should we thank them for the “collateral damage” they inflict?
Should we thank them for doing the job they get paid to do?
Should we thank them for secure our borders?
Should we thank them for guarding American shores?
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Should we thank them for patrolling American coasts?
Should we thank them for enforcing a no-fly zone over American skies?
Should we thank them for dying in vain?
Should we thank them for being a global force for evil?
Should we thank them for being willing pawns of the U.S. government?
Should we thank them for being part of the president’s personal attack force?
Should we thank them for dying for a lie?
Should we thank them for fighting foreign wars?
Should we thank them for occupying foreign countries?
Should we thank them for maiming and killing millions of people during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries?
Should we thank them for unleashing sectarian violence in the Middle East?
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Should we thank them for garrisoning the planet with hundreds of military bases?
Should we thank them for committing torture and atrocities?
Should we thank them for bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan?
Should we thank them for killing civilians for sport?
Should we thank them for raping women and girls in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in France after D-Day?
Should we thank them for killing civilians and then covering up their crimes?
Should we thank them for urinating on the dead bodies of those they killed?
Should we thank them for getting their names on a wall in Washington, D.C.?
Should we thank them for dying for a mistake?
Should we thank them for killing, poisoning, raping, beating, torturing, burning, mutilating, abusing, drowning, and sexually exploiting Vietnamese during the Vietnam War—as documented by Nick Turse in Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam?
Should we thank them for thinking it honorable to go to someone else’s country and butcher people they don’t know because some politician or general told them to?
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Should we thank them for thinking that we still speak English because of their “sacrifices”?
Should we thank them for just getting a paycheck?
Should we thank them for sexually assaulting each other?
Should we thank them for frequenting overseas brothels?
Should we thank them for their drug and alcohol addictions?
Should we thank them for getting taken advantage of by predatory lenders?
Should we thank them for listening to the lies of military recruiters?
Should we thank them for being duped?
Should we thank them for the death and destruction they caused overseas?
Should we thank them for thinking that wearing a uniform gives them a license to kill?
Should we thank them for committing murder?
Should we thank them for accepting reverence from idolaters who worship the military?
Should we thank them for their service when their service is something we can do without?
Thank veterans and the troops? Thank them for what? What in the world should we be thanking them for? Americans have a lot of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. U.S. soldiers “serving” in some foreign country is not one of them.
