What Should We Be Saying to Veterans?

By Laurence M. Vance
May. 12, 2015

The volume of and impetus for my negative e-mail has changed considerably since the early days of the Iraq War.

During those days I was regularly termed a pacifist, an appeaser, a liberal, a communist, a traitor, an America-hater, a peacenik, a coward, an anti-war weenie, a liberal, a leftist, a Democrat, an isolationist, a hippy, a Quaker, a moron, a s-head, and/or an a-hole because I didn’t support the war and criticized Christians who did.

But as the light of truth was shown on Bush’s lies and the war in Iraq turned out to be such a debacle, support for the war dropped off, as did much of my negative e-mail. I even received some apologies. But since the official end of the war (which, of course, never really ended), one type of negative e-mail I receive has actually increased. I can summarize every one of these e-mails in just four words: “Don’t criticize the troops.” Invading and occupying Iraq, maiming and killing Iraqis, making widows and orphans, making people homeless and refuges, and bombing and destroying Iraqi infrastructure, although U.S. troops did it, did it to a great degree, did it unjustly, and did it unnecessarily—it is not their fault. It is all the fault of the president, the Congress, the politicians, the Joint Chiefs, the Generals—anyone but the troops who actually did the dirty work.

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