Can we honor our soldiers while condemning the wars they fought?

[edhopper]

Can we respect the men and women in uniform while seeing the military as a bloated, wasteful agency that needs to be reeled in.

I am 64 and we have not fought in a single worthwhile conflict in my life and I see a MIC that siphons off the resources we need for our citizens.

Thank you for your individual service, but I can't support the combined Services.

[Nitram]

1. It was a easier to condemn a war without condemning the service members that fight in it when we had

a draft, and many service members were not volunteers. But I respect those who are willing to fight and die for our country. That requires them to obey orders whether they like them or not. If we want to stop wars, we have two do it through our votes, not by protesting against individual service members.

[UniteFightBack]

2. I guess in general you can but on Memorial Day I think it's in poor taste. nt

[edhopper]

4. I think this is the right time to do it

This is when we are talking about those who died. If not now when" When it is a back burner issue, nobody is thinking about?

We cannot simply honor the sacrifice of the 7500 service people who have died since 9/11 or the 55,000 who died in Vietnam without confronting the wrongness of the wars they died in.

I see it like talking about gun control, the aftermath of a mass shooting IS the time to discuss it.

[UniteFightBack]

7. I'm just trying to think if I had lost someone personally that I was honoring on Memorial Day I

would want it to be all about the fallen and that is it.

[edhopper]

11. I understand

And I would never say to a person who was talking about a personal loss today, "But that war was immoral, let's talk about that."

But there are many post about honor and sacrifice in a general way here. And I don't see why the context of those sacrifices shouldn't be talked about.

[jayschool2013]

13. I lost a close relative in Iraq

and so my brain naturally goes to the lying politicians who sent him to his death.

They're inextricably entwined, the memory and the injustice.

[edhopper]

15. Thank you

I am sorry for your loss.

[tymorial]

6. Yeah its inappropriate and I find the thanks insincere

[edhopper]

12. It's not

I don't think the context of the sacrifice should be out of bounds.

[jayschool2013]

14. THANKS!

See my post #13.

The sacrifice and the lies that led to that sacrifice cannot be separated.

[Thekaspervote]

3. As a family member with vets from the Great War forward...no

[edhopper]

5. We cannot

condemn the Military?

[mnhtnbb]

8. Memorial Day is a poor choice

to address the issue of how often this country has chosen to go to war and for what reason. Memorial Day is all about honoring the sacrifice of those soldiers who lost their lives in the service of their country regardless of whether one agrees that the war in which they were fighting was justified.

[edhopper]

10. And I think

this is the time to discuss how we used those who sacrificed.

Or else "It is never the right time."

[bearsfootball516]

9. Absolutely we can.

If John Doe signs up for the Army in 2002 because he wants to serve the country, and then gets shipped off to Iraq the next year, he didn’t know that was going to happen. The fact that Iraq was an unjust war doesn’t dimish he nobleness of the soldier who was sent over to fight.

[Iggo]

16. I can.

No problem.

[edhopper]

17. A Veteran agrees with me

and yes, "on this day."

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/yes-my-fellow-soldiers-died-in-vain/

This Memorial Day, spare us the flyover jets, flag-wielding honor guards, and other patriotic mush of 21st-century popular culture. Instead, I’d submit that now—after 18 years of endless, ineffective war—it’s a time for nuance, for a collective national self-assessment. What was it all for, Alex’s death and those of more than 7,000 others in uniform? Very little, it seems.