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Another U.S. Veteran Passionately Pleads: "Please Don't Thank Me For My Service"
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
It wasn’t true. There was a problem. I could see it from the way he looked down. And I could see it on the faces of some of the other vets who work with Mr. Garth when I thanked them too. What gives, I asked? Who doesn’t want to be thanked for their military service?
Many people, it turns out. Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, calls it the “thank you for your service phenomenon.” To some recent vets - by no stretch all of them — the thanks comes across as shallow, disconnected, a reflexive offering from people who, while meaning well, have no clue what soldiers did over there or what motivated them to go, and who would never have gone themselves nor sent their own sons and daughters.
Mr. Garth, 26, said that when he gets thanked it can feel self-serving for the thankers, suggesting that he did it for them, and that they somehow understand the sacrifice, night terrors, feelings of loss and bewilderment. Or don’t think about it at all.
- From the New York Times article: Please Don’t Thank Me for My Service
Last fall, Liberty Blitzkrieg highlighted a powerful letter written by former U.S. Army Ranger Rory Fanning, in the post: “Stop Thanking Me for My Service” – Former U.S. Army Ranger Blasts American Foreign Policy and The Corporate State. In it, I explained why his comments resonated so powerfully with me. Here’s an excerpt:
I have to admit, whenever I find myself in the midst of a large public gathering (which fortunately isn’t that often), and the token veteran or two is called out in front of the masses to “honor” I immediately begin to cringe as a result of a massive internal conflict. On the one hand, I recognize that the veteran(s) being honored is most likely a decent human being. Either poor or extraordinarily brainwashed, the man or woman paraded in front of the crowd is nothing more than a pawn. Even if their spouse hasn’t left them; even if whatever conflict they were involved in didn’t result in a permanent disability or post traumatic stress disorder, this person has been used and abused, and thirty seconds of cheering in between ravenous bites out of a footlong hotdog from a drunk and apathetic crowd isn’t going to change that. I don’t harbor negative sentiments toward the veteran.
On the other hand, the entire spectacle makes me sick. I refuse to participate in the superficial charade for many reasons, but the primary one is that I don’t want to play any part in the crowd’s insatiable imbecility. It’s the stupidity and ignorance of the masses that the corporate-state preys upon, and that’s precisely what’s on full display at these tired and phony imperialist celebrations.
Interestingly and satisfyingly, it appears the phony “thank you for your service” comment is seen as the empty, thoughtless platitude it is by a large amount of U.S. veterans. Rather than saying “thank your for your service,” it appears increasingly clear the appropriate sentiment should be something like, “I’m really sorry American leadership carelessly sacrificed your life for no good reason.”
Don’t take it from me though. Read the following excerpts from a recent New York Times article focusing on the travails of U.S. Marine veteran Hunter Garth:
I didn’t know any of this — nor the remarkable story of his survival that day — when I met him two months ago in Colorado while reporting for an article about the marijuana industry, for which Mr. Garth and his company provide security. But I did know he was a vet and so I did what seemed natural: I thanked him for his service.
“No problem,” he said.
It wasn’t true. There was a problem. I could see it from the way he looked down. And I could see it on the faces of some of the other vets who work with Mr. Garth when I thanked them too. What gives, I asked? Who doesn’t want to be thanked for their military service?
Many people, it turns out. Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, calls it the “thank you for your service phenomenon.” To some recent vets — by no stretch all of them — the thanks comes across as shallow, disconnected, a reflexive offering from people who, while meaning well, have no clue what soldiers did over there or what motivated them to go, and who would never have gone themselves nor sent their own sons and daughters.
Mr. Garth, 26, said that when he gets thanked it can feel self-serving for the thankers, suggesting that he did it for them, and that they somehow understand the sacrifice, night terrors, feelings of loss and bewilderment. Or don’t think about it at all.
The issue has been percolating for a few years, elucidated memorably in “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” a 2012 National Book Award finalist about a group of soldiers being feted at halftime of a Dallas Cowboys game. The soldiers express dread over people rushing to offer thanks, pregnant with obligation and blood lust and “their voices throbbing like lovers.”
The idea of giving thanks while not participating themselves is one of the core vet quibbles, said Mr. Freedman, the Green Beret. The joke has become so prevalent, he said, that servicemen and women sometimes walk up to one another pretending to be “misty-eyed” and mockingly say “Thanks for your service.”
Mr. Freedman, 33, feels like the thanks “alleviates some of the civilian guilt,” adding: “They have no skin in the game with these wars. There’s no draft.”
No real opinions either, he said. “At least with Vietnam, people spit on you and you knew they had an opinion.”
“Thank you for your service,” he said, is almost the equivalent of “I haven’t thought about any of this.”
Tim O’Brien, a Vietnam vet and the author of the acclaimed book “The Things They Carried,” told me that his war’s vets who believed in the mission like to be thanked. Others, himself included, find that “something in the stomach tumbles” from expressions of appreciation that are so disconnected from the “evil, nasty stuff you do in war.”
The more so, he said, “when your war turns out to have feet of clay” — whether fighting peasants in Vietnam or in the name of eradicating weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.
But doesn’t their sacrifice merit thanks? “Patriotic gloss,” responded Mr. O’Brien, an unofficial poet laureate of war who essentially elevates the issue to the philosophical; to him, we’re thanking without having the courage to ask whether the mission is even right.
As we know all too well, most Americans aren’t inclined to thinking very much in the first place, so this is no surprise.
It wasn’t what he romanticized. First training and waiting. Then the reality that he might die, along with his friends — 17 of them did, in action, by accident or by suicide. And, he now asks, for what?
So what to say to a vet? Maybe promise to vote next time, Mr. Freedman said, or offer a scholarship or job (as, he said, some places have stepped up and done). Stand up for what’s right, suggested Mr. O’Brien. Give $100 to a vet, Ben Fountain, author of the “Billy Lynn” book, half-joked, saying it would at least show some sacrifice on the thanker’s part.
Perhaps the most disturbing part of all this, is that the American public and U.S. politicians have learned absolutely zero lessons from the last decade and a half of constant war. In fact, the bloodlust and irrational drive toward military action all over the globe continues unabated. As Charles Pierce notes in his Esquire article, Drums Along The Potomac: How This Country Never Learns Anything:
Quite frankly, this has been one of the more depressing weeks we have seen in a very long time. The country seems to be sliding down some very familiar tracks into a military engagement in the Middle East — an engagement that, at the moment, seems to be cloudy in its objectives, vague in its outlines, and obscure on the simple fact of what we are supposedly fighting for, and who we will be fighting with. Can we fight the Islamic State generally without help from (gasp!) Iran? Can we fight the Islamic State in Syria without a de facto alliance with Hafez al-Assad, who was Hitler only a year or so ago? And the most recent polling seems to indicate that all the institutions that are supposed to act as a brake on war powers within a self-governing republic are working in reverse again. The Congress is going to debate how much leeway it should give the president to make war, not whether he should be allowed to do it at all. The elite media, having scared Americans to death by giving the barbarians and their slaughter porn the international platform the barbarians so desired, is jumping on board with both feet. (To cite only one example, Chris Matthews is suiting up again.) The country has been prepared to give its children up again.
But it may not be enough. The next presidential election is gearing up, and what is going on in the Middle East has changed the dynamic of that race utterly. People may be running for president with American troops in harm’s way, whether the engagement there is general or not. The opinion of the country has been manufactured again to demand a war with no clear goals and no clear endpoint. Voices of reason and moderation — Hi, Marie Harf! — are being shouted down by conservatives and only tepidly supported by liberals. Nearly 100 years ago, rising in the Senate to oppose the entry of the United States into World War I, Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin called the bluff of every hawk who ever called for a blind punch at a designated enemy.
We should not seek to hide our blunder behind the smoke of battle to inflame the mind of our people by half truths into the frenzy of war in order that they may never appreciate the real cause of it until it is too late. I do not believe that our national honor is served by such a course. The right way is the honorable way.
The ground already is prepared, the soil tilled. The mission already is creeping.
Repeat after me: USA! USA!’
* * *
For related articles, see:
A Marine’s Incredible Letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein
Meet Brandon Bryant: The Drone Operator Who Quit After Killing a Child
Propaganda 101 – How the Pentagon is Trying to Rewrite Vietnam War History
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Because they are brainwashed that is why.
Actually most of them join because its better than flippping burgers.
You can't bullshit me, as a veteran I know we are. Many guys just kept signing up because they had wife and kids and had to pay the bills.
The average Veteran if he spends more than 4 years in service and gets out is LOST in the real world where he has to pay rent, a mortgage or even buy his own food
What difference does it make when for every single enlightened tool there are a thousand useful idiots who will pull the trigger for any reason?
Some people mature quite young, others never mature.
Most troops are young, dumb and full of cum. Always have been,.
OTOH, I know young guys who went to Sweden or Canada during Vietnam. Got married, had a family and are living fruitful peaceful lives.
And yet those guys are BASHED.
If I had to do it over , I would have done the same. ONly I didn't have enought guts.
Perhaps every new recruit should be given a copy of 'War is a Racket' during their pass out parade. That might change things....
Many of them have terrible reading levels. I doubt it.
+100.
I don't pretend to know what you've been through Dutch. Serving these warmongers and dying in ignorance is, most likely, much more preferable (and easy) than finally figuring out that you did your killing, survived the madness and that ultimately you've been played. I don't blame you. But then, I won't thank you either. That's your burden man. The only person that protects my freedom and security is me. I don't ask anyone to do it on my behalf. I just gasp at the outrageousness that led to yours, and many a soldiers similar, dilemma. Peace mate.
...did all 20 in the USMC and couldn't agree more. Most of us were not exactly sure why we joined and picked up the media fed excuse of...whatever to fill in the blank. Once you are in, inertia is on their side and the fear of change keeps most sticking around for another tour IMO. Easier to keep the paycheck and put our heads back in the sand then to make the leap.
Good post. I was one of those young, dumb and full of cum guys who signed up when I just turned 18, My older brother got married and had a kid to avoid the draft. He and his wife tried to get me to go to Canada when I got order for Vietnam. My father who was the old ''you must do what your country tells you'' kinda guy would have killed me. Luckily I made it out of there alive. It still makes me sick that 58,000 guys died for another LIE ., The Gulf of Tonkin incident NEVER HAPPENED,. now admitted by the USA govt, however its not reported.
Nonstory gets play on site filled with misanthropes.
fair point. But a good reason to rant none the less ;-)
"I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
The Constitonion's enemies are the ones that sent you overseas. They will be the ones to use you against the American people, and country. A military not bound to the Constioion is only but a plundering and murdering machine, and a soldier of same nothing but a cog in the machine.
The Constitution, your oath to same, and Nuremberg Principle IV require that you consider whether your orders are lawful or not. Do you serve the Constitution and the American people, or the criminals Unconstitutionally occupying, plundering, and oppressing the American country?
The banksters need to repay us.
The Constitution's primary enemies are located at 1000 Colonial Farm Rd, Mclean, VA, and Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC. Take your guns, tanks, and selves there, your oath demands it.
What is your name and address, we will send the Gestapo and SS to change your mind.
The notion that today's soldiers can't comprehend what they read or are mouth-breathing idiots is far from true. Many have a college degree, or are working on a second or a MBA / Masters. Please note - they don't come to us like that as American schools have gotten progressively worse since 1979.
They are well versed in the middle east as many of them have lived there for one year or more (unlike the commenters on this site) and when they do offer an opinion, it is as varied as the number of conspiracy theories you'll find here on ZH.
The notion that the military needs to stage a coup is just as misguided as any other "reset" solution. I could go into infinite detail as to 'why' a military takeover would be a bad thing, but suffice to say, once you let that Djinni out of the bottle - it would be difficult to get him back inside.
Furthermore, the collateral damage in such a situation has the potential to be devastating and also there is the potential to escalate into nationwide violence (or a minor civil war).
As an aside, the only people who ever thank me are 50 +. Teenagers and 20-30 somethings often stare at me like I'm an alien. Given the percentage of people who actually serve compared to our population, they're probably right.
Just once I'd love for some bored 20-something year old hottie to thank me 'Penthouse style'.
I am almost 70 year old Vietnam Vet and disagree with you.
PLus I was flying freight in and out of Baghdad when it was under Saddam and the total LIES that the USA govt used to whip up hatred against Saddam was disgusting.
I bet you believed them though, didn't you.
If you thank me for my service you may get a knuckle sandwich.
I met a lot of educated idiots during my time in the USAF. mostly officers.
+1000
I think SAC had the majority of them. Although TAC definitely had a horse in that race.
You didnt serve the people, you served a criminal organization and it's central banker leaders. All this you did at the expense of our freedom, safety, and prosperity. Of course 50+ year old people are the only ones thanking you, they are too old to understand whats happening in todays world, they're stuck in a WW2 mindset.
For some the brainwashing is DEEP. Its futile to reason with them. Critical thinking by them is ridiculed.
50 somethings stuck in wwII mindset, really? You DO realize that wwII ended back in the 40's yes? You're not nearly as smart as you give yourself credit for dimwit.
I never thank anyone for doing the dirty work of criminals. If I'm going to thank anyone for 'his service' I'd thank somebody like Edward Snowden, a man who actually DID fight for your freedom.
+1000 thumbs up on that comment.
Thank you for your comment! It expresses my feelings perfectly.
I was at camp pendleton. the "men" there are mostly kids that politicians send as cannon fodder so deneral dynamics can get wildly rich. where do you think obama and his wife spend their time skiing? at the home of the crowns who own gd. sleeping under the samr roof, getting ready to get very rich, so, what difference does a few thosuand good american boys without arns or legs make? these people are straight out of the evil playbook.
"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." Henry Kissinger, quoted by Bob Woodward in The Final Days, 1976
I think the range of guys in is too wide to make a generalization of motives some guys had a MOS that was basically a job - mechanic cook etc. Then there were those trying to challenge and better themselves and finally the 'adventurers'. Most guys I know - keep our heads down and don't want any thanks- didn't do it for you. for those - like in these posts rendering arm chair opinions on our morality, intelligence etc - go fuk yourself. if all the clowns talking their collapse shite ever have to face it - let's see who makes it - us grunts or the talking heads
I guess you missed it, but many of us are Veterans here. You call us armchair? Go fuck yourself
Whatever
I guess you missed it, but many of us are Veterans here. You call us armchair? Go fuck yourself
Guess you missed it- arm chair clearly directed at those with non military experience - will now unfuk myself
Dr. Helen Caldicott says we use depleated uranium in our wars in Iraq.
Therefore, the Goobament ensures that those soldiers that don't die on the battlefield, die when they come home.
Those fuckers!
What pisses me off is they have the audacity to say Saddam gassed people. (a quick death) and yet the USA uses things like napalm, white phosphorous, cluster bombs,. and depleted uranium which is a long torturous death.
Saddam hated Islamists and terrorists. and dealt with them accordingly. Most US troops don't have a clue about how Iraq was before they destroyed it. I was there in the late 90's It was actually one of the more advanced countries in the M.E. and the bullshit about rape rooms was pure propaganda. Remember the story about the incubators in Kuwait? We now know and its has been admitted by the woman reporting that it was BIG LIE and she was told to say that.
Everytime I hear Hanity thank a veteran for his service I want to punch him in his face. Then he throws that stupid football to someone as he sits there on his fat ass. Probably has someone fetch him the ball when he misses the return throw.
Anyone who listens to FOXCNNABCCBSNBC has got a screw loose. they are ALL Liars and propagandists.
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia
It's truly amazing to watch how the MSM has used this ISIS nonsense to stoke up bloodlust in the american people. It's truly amazing how gullible and short-sighted my fellow americans are. It's quite embarrassing, frankly.
Not much reported is that ISIS is getting air dropped arms and those beheadings are total FAKE and theatre. ISIS is a CIA/Mossad operation to create chaos so the USA/Israel can mop up.
You think they can parade around in broad daylight in New Toyotas and white Nike shoes and not just be carpet bombed to smithereeens? Its all theatre folks. because if the USA really wanted to demolish ISIS they could do it within 24 hours.
I just wanted to go home and forget I was ever there.
I went home, but I never forgot.
Fuck you Henry Kissinger.
I would gladly put the noose around your criminal neck and release the trap door.
There is one veteran I would like to thank for his selfless service to this nation and the ideological descendants of the Founding Fathers. Timothy McVeigh. He was a real American hero.
Just another patsy
What do Lee Harvey Oswald, 19 Arabs and Timothy McVeigh have in common?
Answer: They were all PATSIES.
This is for all you FOXCNNABCCBSNBC fans
You won't see THIS reported in USA or even EU MSM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-J4P3rChc0
I was a carrier sailor during the Iraq war (OIF). I have a hard time finding the right words when people thank me for my service. I am angry that my government was willing to sacrifice me, and any or all of my shipmates for what as it turns out was total horseshit. I am angry at myself for being so naive as to believe the lies they told. My intuition told me it was not right, and my suspicions were confirmed shortly after the figting commenced. It is interesting to note that the ones who thump their chests the loudest and are constantly trying to get us into yet another war are the very ones who have never served a day in their lives. It is so easy to be cavalier with somebody else's life. To those fuckers I say, pick up a rifle and go fight. I won't stop you. If you are unable or unwilling to do that, then shut the hell up. To the media that was complicit in manufacturing the consent for war, you bastards are lower than snake shit and if there is a God and he is just you will answer for what you have done. I was one of the lucky ones that saw though the bullshit and got out after my enlistment was up. The debt we owe those serving is to make damn sure nothing like that ever happens again.
R/
One pissed off sailor
You can be thanked for your service of telling the truth.
McCain always perplexes me in the aspect of his POW experience, but overtly eager to send more to the same or worse demise. Souless, power drunk halfwit.
This topic is a huge litmus test. Religion, politics yea people have their opinions, but you bring this up in the wrong crowd and get ready to defend. It is the textbook example of brainwashing. And what those dolts do not realize is the war worship will have more sacrafices, because USA.corp declared war on an ideology "terror", meaning infinite enemy combatants.
War is when the government tells the people who the enemy is. Revolution is when the people finally realize who the real enemy is.
You self righteous twat Why didn't you report that psychopath to the institutes? instead you made the corps shit him out. How about it asshole - did he make it as a Marine ? yea - thought so or your post would have had some whole what he did shite. bunch of site from you IMHO. if not - prove me wrong.
One thing that always bothered me a lot in Vietnam. Guys calling them ''dinks' , gooks' slopes etc etc.
I was naturalized american having immigrated to USA in 1951 with parents from the Netherlands., I remember people in Chicago area, calling us fucking Dutchmen while my Dad was building a home in their neighborhood. I never forgot that.
Then later I see the troops were calling Iraqia. ragheads, and sand niggers etc.
The first thing they do is get people to HATE the enemy they have chosen for you.
You have to turn someone into an object to make it easier to kill them apparently.
I've never been a soldier. I never wanted to be one. However, I know that there will come a day when I must choose between drowning in my blood or living in my shit. On that day, me and many others will pick up a rifle and do battle with the greatest war machine ever known. We will fight gallantly, and we will be slaughtered gallantly.
‘
‘
‘
I don’t thank you for your service.
I’m sorry for your service.
You signed up for whatever reason, I don’t care, they’re all good reasons, and you got screwed.
Screwed by being sent into wars, for nothing but oil and politics.
Your sacrifice was worthless, meaningless.
You got shot up and killed, and watched your buddies shot up and killed and we pissed away a country’s fortune of blood and treasure.
And it didn’t matter, because now we’re on their side.
And they won! They didn’t win. We quit. And changed sides.
I am so fucking glad I didn’t sign up, because 30 years ago, I asked meselfs if I wanted to die for the people who were in power.
I said “No.”
I didn’t trust our leaders, so I passed.
I regret that decision, having lead a crappy life, filled with crappy people.
I fantasize that it would been different, working with honourable men and having had meaning to one’s life.
My mother says it wouldn’t have been any different.
I think she’s right.
•?•
V-V
Wow - you're a world beater. You know it all Go fuk yourself