OK - my last post of the night. I was a kid during the end of the Vietnam war, but my parents were heavily involved in the both the anti-Vietnam war movement and the Veterans rights movements. My mom was a returning student in the 70's in a community college in the greater Los Angeles area. And there were a lot Veterans in her college. And some of them were not receiving their Veterans benefits. So my parents invited a bunch of vets over for dinner and they all told stories of being months and even years behind in receiving the money they were supposed to get for college. They told worse stories too ; there was one veteran who had had his face half blown off. The veterans administration refused to pay for reconstructive surgery - said that would only be "cosmetic" since he could breathe and talk and eat perfectly well. And he was so ashamed of how he looked that he just stayed in a friends basement, and never went out. My parents called KPFK news, and the local CBS news radio (who was a little more open to this kind of thing than the other commercial stations) at the time) and arrange interviews, and what do you know not only did Pacifica carry it, CBS carried. And before you know it, the story broke into the national news, and Nixon and to stay in the White House over Christmas to get the veterans their benefits. And my parents ended up with a real relationship with those veterans. They were inducted as honorary Vietnam Vets at a Vietnam Veteran only beer bust. We all (even me at 12) played a drinking game called "shit, shit, shit".
But you know one thing my parents never did? They never ever expressed GRATITUDE towards the vets for having served. They hated the war; they did not rub anyone's face in it; but they did not conceal it either. (Not that a lot of the Veterans did not hate the war as well.) But they never pretended that those veterans having gone to Vietnam did one damn thing to help anyone.
And the reason I support coming down on Boddhi a little for this, is that I think the idea that civilians should kiss the ass of the military is fuckin dangerous. If you want to express gratitude to a worker with a hard thankless job we all depend on, thank a farmworker. Thanks a roofer. Thanks someone who drives a garbage truck. Thank a a firefighter. Thank a teacher. But don't suport the right wing meme that the military is what really gives us freedom, and that civilians are some kind of well protected parasite free riding on the sacrifices soldiers make. I've encountered that in too many vicious extreme rightists to let it pass from a person who claims sympathy for the left. (Note to Carrol: I agree with your analysis on the misuse of the word facism. But I need a really good curse word for exceptionally vicious rightwingers.) I really think that is inherent in B's military ass kissing.