Why Should We Appreciate Our Veterans?

Veterans Day brings out the worst in conservatives.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Beltway think tank, has published many informative articles and commentaries over the years, especially via The Daily Signal, which it has now spun off as an independent media organization with its own leadership team and board of directors. However, like most other conservative organizations, it never met a defense budget that was adequate enough or a soldier who wasn’t a hero.

On the day before Veterans Day last month, The Daily Signal published a commentary by Tom Ruck titled “How President Trump Can Help a New Generation Learn to Appreciate Our Veterans.” Ruck is the author of Sacred Ground: A Tribute to America’s Veterans (Regnery Publishing, 2007), a book about America’s national military cemeteries with essays by Oliver North, Sean Hannity, and others; expressions of gratitude to our military and thoughts on honor, duty, sacrifice, and courage by great Americans; and excerpts from famous speeches given at momentous times in our history. The book is “a solemn, heartfelt testament to the bravery, honor, and glory of the truest of American heroes: the American veteran.” War, Christianity, and... Laurence M. Vance Best Price: $8.95 Buy New $9.95 (as of 09:10 UTC - Details)

Although Veterans Day is over, because veterans are celebrated every day in America, I must offer a corrective to Mr. Ruck.

Ruck maintains in his commentary that many in the Democratic Party have an “anti-American and anti-military sentiment.” Says Ruck:

This is a shame because veterans represent the very best of America.

From the sandy beaches of Normandy and the wet jungles of Vietnam to the hot deserts of Iraq and harsh mountains of Afghanistan, they have fought and died for our freedom. Their courage, honor, and selflessness are unmatched, and they should serve as an example for every American today, especially young people.

With that in mind, this Veterans Day it’s worth asking what our new president can do to restore a sense of gratitude in all Americans for our military servicemen and women.

Ruck puts forth four initiatives for Trump:

• Put a stop to the politicization of the military through wokeness
• Use his bully pulpit to remind the American people of the virtues of our military men and women.
• Revisit its previous plans to build the National Garden of American Heroes, and honor some of our country’s greatest veterans there.
• Preserving and enhancing the beauty of our national cemeteries.

The politicization of the military through wokeness should be stopped, but not just because it is the military that has gone woke. Wokeness, which has infected and permeated every facet of American society, should be stopped everywhere.

But should President Trump use his bully pulpit to remind the American people of the virtues of our military men and women? Should he build the National Garden of American Heroes, and honor some of our country’s greatest veterans there? Should he help a new generation learn to appreciate our veterans? Do veterans represent the very best of America? Have veterans fought and died for our freedom. Is the courage, honor, and selflessness of veterans unmatched? Should veterans serve as an example for every American today, especially young people?

These are the questions that should have been asked on Veterans Day. So, since I have asked them, let me answer them, all of them, at the same time, with just three words: Of course not.

First of all, if there is one group of people in America who have been appreciated and honored ad nauseam more than any other group for not being courageous, virtuous, or selfless, it is our military men and women. Most every time someone finds out that the person in his presence is a veteran, he immediately thanks the veteran for his service. But what “service” are we supposed to thank a veteran for? How did a veteran serve me or any other American by being in the military? How were Americans served when veterans bombed, invaded, and occupied countries that posed no threat to the United States?

Rethinking the Good War Laurence M. Vance Buy New $5.95 (as of 12:45 UTC - Details) Second, veterans do not represent the very best of America, and sometimes represent the very worst. They engage in offense and call it defense. They help to carry out a reckless, belligerent, and meddling foreign policy. They help to create terrorists, insurgents, and militants. They go where they have no business going. They make widows and orphans. They kill civilians and excuse it as collateral damage. They destroy foreign industry, culture, and infrastructure.

Third, veterans have fought and died, but not for our freedom. They fought in vain and died for a lie. Fighting foreign wars only reduces our freedom. The greatest threat to our freedoms is the U.S. government, not the governments of China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, or Iran. Instead of blindly following the orders of Uncle Sam, I wish veterans would have defended our freedom to fly without being violated, our freedom to cut someone’s hair for money without a license, our freedom to not be arrested for victimless crimes, and our freedom to not have our e-mail and phone conversations monitored.

And fourth, veterans are not a good example for Americans, and especially young people. They fight wars that are not constitutionally declared. They recite filthy cadences. They sexually assault each other. They neglect and sacrifice their families. They support a network of brothels around the world. They obey immoral orders. They fight senseless wars. They are a global force for evil.

Our national cemeteries should be preserved and enhanced to remind Americans of the hundreds of thousands of senseless and preventable deaths of American soldiers.

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