Just what SHOULD we thank veterans for?

[Obamarama]

This outstanding LTTE/Viewpoint published this morning in my local paper gives us all some pretty good ideas:

A recent Kalamazoo Gazette editorial made a suggestion about thanking a vet. The expected thank you, of course, is thanks for fighting to preserve our freedom, our way of life, for being brave, for defending us. But I can't give the expected gratitude.

-snip-

I don't believe in war and in killing people as a way to resolve differences or conflicts. I don't want anyone to join the military and kill in my name. Despite that, I'm still feeling the pull of the suggestion: For what can a person like myself thank a vet?

-snip-

Thank you for showing us what it takes to overcome that innate restriction to kill someone. Thank you for showing us what amount of demonization of the enemy it takes to kill the enemy. Thank you for demonstrating to us that we are capable of killing. Thank you for writing letters home expressing your love for your family. Thank you for taking the romance and glory out of war. Thank you for not raping that woman when you could have. Thank you for not contributing to a massacre when you could have.

-snip -

Thank you for sharing your candy bars with the enemy's kids. Thank you for the effort to readjust to civilian life. Thank you for bearing the scars of war. Thank you for listening to inane conversations about the glory of war. Thank you for learning the depth of depravity and the depth of love. Thank you for treating captured enemy combatants decently and humanely. Thank you for keeping yourself sane. Thank you for enduring curses and scorn. Thank you for being tough and for being soft. Thank you for going back to battlefield areas years later and helping in the reconstruction. Thank you for not committing suicide. Thank you for coming back home.

We need all of us to heal the wounds of war -- physical, psychological and societal -- to dissipate the fog of war; to rebuild the destroyed.

Can a similar challenge be issued to veterans and supporters of war? For what would you thank a pacifist?

The full text of this thought-provoking letter can be read at:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1142767656105740.xml&coll=7