Thank You For Your Service

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/jaime-oneill/57990/thank-you-for-your-service

Thank You For Your Service
Armed Forces
by Jaime O'Neill | August 31, 2014 - 8:38am

One of the clichés that has grown tiresome over the past decade or so is “thank you for your service,” that limp expression of generic gratitude we’ve been conditioned to say whenever we see or hear anything about people who serve in the U.S. military. Like most clichés, part of the problem is that the sentiment gets detached from sincerely felt meaning, becomes hollow sound, signifying nothing. The phrase was generated, in part, out of national guilt for the lack of appreciation shown to U.S. servicemen and women during the Vietnam War era. When that ultimately unpopular war ended in a disgraceful defeat, the soldiers who fought it were not greeted with parades and bouquets, and the lack of public gratitude for what they’d been through left many of them embittered. Beyond that, the myth took root that returning Vietnam vets were universally greeted by oceans of spit from war protesters, an exaggeration so powerful that even guys who didn’t serve in Vietnam would swear they were spat upon just because they were in the vicinity of some dirty hippies while wearing their uniforms. So the lesson we as a nation took from that experience was that we would be wary in the future of blaming servicemen and women for the failures of sometimes misguided policies they were asked to carry out.

And it is appropriate to offer appreciation to men and women, most of them drawn from the lower classes, who go to places they’d rather not be to do dangerous things they’d rather not do. They see things most Americans never see, and some of them face dangers most Americans will never know.

But not everything they are asked to do does their nation good, nor does it bring credit, or earn us love. It is not their fault when their sacrifices are made in the interest of political decisions that were not wise, nor much rooted in true national interest. Some 5000 young and not-so-young Americans lost their lives in Iraq, as misguided an effort as any nation ever launched. Now, after having been told they would be greeted as liberators in that benighted country, and after a trillion dollars has been spent, chaos rules Iraq, a much worse enemy has been created out of that chaos, Iran’s role in the region has been strengthened, and the people who launched all that death and misery still think they should be listened to on matters of foreign policy. You’d have to be a fool to take advice from them on the question of “paper or plastic?” let alone anything more important.

So, while I may honor the people who answered the nation’s call, young men and women who thought they were fighting in defense of their country, much of that service didn’t produce beneficial results—not to their own country, nor to Iraq. Halliburton should thank them for their service, but most ordinary Americans can only thank them for their willingness to serve, not for what was actually accomplished through that service. Their courage in attempting to carry out the muddled vision of mad men or greedy corporations yielded little for which they can be offered thanks. The arrogant men and women who thought they could remake a part of the world they didn’t understand into a dimly understood facsimile of their own country has made the Middle East more unstable and made Americans less safe. But thanks, anyway, servicemen and women, for your idealism, your patriotism, your courage, and your sacrifice. Through no fault of yours, you helped create the power vacuum that allowed ISIS to gain so much power, so much territory, and so many recruits. I wish the noble motives behind your service had been put to better use.

[JEFF9K]

1. That phrase sounded cool, at first.

Now is sounds kind of cliche. It seems most appropriate for seniors who fought in WWII or Korea.

[Glorfindel]

2. I think it's just something expected to be said, like "love you!" at the end of a phone call

It's just as routine and meaningless. I'm expecting any day now to hear someone chirp "love you!" at the end of a business telephone conversation, right after "bye, bye." Jeez...I'm turning into an old curmudgeon.