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"I Fought For Your Right To..."


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Okay, so it's a common statement shared on Facebook and offline, that veterans fought somehow for our freedom or our rights.

 

Does anyone here buy the argument, and can you explain it to me? Have we been involved in any wars during the past 50 years that qualify in any way as protecting our freedom or our rights? Has fighting in the Middle East or Asia really fit that description at all?

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Yeah, I dunno. This is a touchy subject. I was at a bar 5 or 6 years ago, drinking on the patio with some friends, when some guy hushes everyone to make an announcement; that his friend just got back from Iraq, and that we should congratulate him, and that the reason we're able to enjoy our beers is because of people like him fighting for our freedom. Actually, I'm pretty sure it was the guy himself tooting his own horn, but I'm not 100% sure so I'll just say there was an intermediary. Anyway, I started quietly singing Freedom Costs a Buck O Five, and one of the people in my group got really pissed. I should have just kept my mouth shut but at the time the rhetoric regarding our military had reached nearly holy proportions and it was getting old.

 

If anything our rights and freedoms have likely diminished since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It's more like: "in a roundabout, mostly indiscernible way, we (volunteers acting under the orders of policy makers) simultaneously cause problems and clean up messes that may or may not be a direct result of our previous intervention(s). But we're really proud of the messes we clean up and what the uniform is supposed to represent" ... but you can't fit that on a button.

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Okay, so it's a common statement shared on Facebook and offline, that veterans fought somehow for our freedom or our rights.

 

Does anyone here buy the argument, and can you explain it to me? Have we been involved in any wars during the past 50 years that qualify in any way as protecting our freedom or our rights? Has fighting in the Middle East or Asia really fit that description at all?

You could probably make that argument with a WWII veteran.

 

Depending on your ideology and interpretation of history, you might be able to make that argument with a veteran of the cold war era.

 

Modern military no doubt serves as a deterrent to those who would threaten the cost of sneakers and iPhones in the U.S., but I'm not sure they are protecting our "freedom or our rights;" the biggest threats to those at this time are, IMO, internal rather than external.

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... but at the time the rhetoric regarding our military had reached nearly holy proportions and it was getting old.

Exactly. "The Troops" are just another sacred cow. Another object of veneration of another political religion.

 

If anything our rights and freedoms have likely diminished since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This is what happens when political ideas are sacralized. It becomes taboo to question anything advanced under these ideas. So you lose freedom, and bad policy becomes entrenched and institutionalized. This kind of idolterizing of "the troops" after 9/11 enabled costly military adventures that resulted in a less rather than more stable world situation. The horrendous excesses of the pork barrel military industrial complex proceed in the same manner. They advance under the bannar of a sacralized military establishment that cannot be questioned or scrutinized for fear of appearing "soft" at best, if not outrightly treasonous.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

First off, I served from 1990-1994, active duty Army. I did not see combat and I was not deployed to Desert Shield/Desert Storm. I do not consider myself someone who fought for anything or protected anyone. I went into the military quite frankly because like a lot of young people, I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school, and I came from a lower middle class family and had to pay for college, somehow. For me, serving in the Army was an important job that helped me learn responsibility, grow up a little faster, provided me with an education, and it helped me prepare for life. I feel fortunate that I was able to gain this life experience without having to see someone get hurt or killed, or having to hurt or kill someone else. Which is probably why I feel that the term veteran is better applied to someone who has had to go through that, than someone like me. The term veteran should mean that you have gone through combat. I very much respect what combat veterans have gone through because while I didn't have to go through it myself, I served with people who did and have some understanding what they and their families have gone through. In my opinion it's those combat veterans, regardless what branch, or in what capacity, and what war, who are the ones who deserve respect, especially the ones who were wounded or killed.

 

Days like Veterans Day or Memorial Day are set aside to honor those veterans who have sacrificed their life, limb, or even their time with their families. It must also be remembered that when we honor these veterans, we are also honoring their family members because when those veterans are away, their families are also are sacrificing, whether it be the remaining parent having to raise their kids alone, or the mother or father who lives in constant worry that their son or daughter may never come home.

 

We are not honoring the politician who wraps themselves in the flag to get whatever bill or military action pushed through, or the football team who charges the DOD thousands of dollars for a half time salute to the troops, or the car sale at your local dealer. Also, there is no time limit on which veterans we honor. Just because it may have happened outside our lifetimes, the sacrifice of the veterans who have been wounded or killed in past wars isn't any less of a sacrifice today, as when it happened. Also, just because a war is unpopular, if a veteran served with distinction, their service is not any less of a sacrifice, because to them it is just as real to have been in Da Nang, Samara, or Falluja, as their father's or grandfather's sacrifice was on the beaches of Normandy, or in the fields of Gettysburg or the winter at Valley Forge, for that matter.

 

Now I understand the original question was how does the modern veteran "protect our freedom." I admit that is a question that isn't so easy to answer in a straight forward manner. Unlike WW2 or prior to that war, we no longer have to scramble to mobilize our military because we maintain a standing military. The strategy has shifted to keep the fighting abroad, so there are added degrees of separation. Yes, to an extent the US military these days does get used to help stabilize regions where there is no clear cut "good guy," or the side which is "less bad." Or, to protect economic interests (which in of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, and often is necessary for not just the US, but the global economy). Yes it is debatable if things were made better or worse in Iraq. And yes, when the military provides humanitarian support for natural disasters in other nations, that is not something directly benefiting the average US citizen.

 

But, I also know we haven't seen another major terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11, and I think there is a case to be made with Afghanistan at least, if we had not taken the fight over there, we might have seen other attacks. We don't see buses regularly blown up by extremists like we do in Israel. We don't have regions that stone women for not wearing burkas outside the house like we do in regions of the Middle East. We don't see coup-de-tauts on a regular basis, nor has the US been invaded since the war of 1812 (not counting the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands). So, in that sense, by having a standing military that deters these events, the veteran does protect freedom of the average citizen.

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Thanks for the response.

 

My intent was not to be antagonistic, and hopefully my post didn't seem that way. My dad was a Vietnam veteran, and died at least partially due to his service. My best friend from childhood is in the Air Force for his entire career, and I respect him. I'm not anti-veteran in any way, and I'm glad to at least have someone who can share where the mindset comes from.

 

I'm not sure I buy it, but it's good to have it spelled out why one would believe it.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Thanks for the response.

 

My intent was not to be antagonistic, and hopefully my post didn't seem that way. My dad was a Vietnam veteran, and died at least partially due to his service. My best friend from childhood is in the Air Force for his entire career, and I respect him. I'm not anti-veteran in any way, and I'm glad to at least have someone who can share where the mindset comes from.

 

I'm not sure I buy it, but it's good to have it spelled out why one would believe it.

I thought you raised an important question and did so respectfully. Something like this deserves debate. I do agree that there is a valid "sacred cow" argument to be made, which Kurgan raises, and I think in many cases politicians on both sides like to use veterans as vehicles to advance their own agendas. I have also seen other veterans act as if society owes them for their service. While it is nice to see veterans respected and honored, I also think a true veteran also knows when to be humble, and not act as if they are better than anyone else.

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