<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> What are you thanking them for? "Thank you brother/sister for taking part in an aggressive war against a people that have not harmed a hair on my head. Thank you for carpet bombing the cradle of civilization Thank you for imprisoning, torturing, humiliating, terrorizing, and killing people whose language you don't even speak. is that it? ...or is it "Thank you for doing the horrible work of empire so I don't have to." I mean, what is it exactly that you are thanking them for? And I am asking about the thanks. I'm not implying that they should be spat upon, reviled, cursed, etc. I just want to know exactly and not abstractly what it is you want to personally thank them for? Joanna boddi satva wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="midd25729380511251658h1566b0c5ge9b1894f450efc29@mail.gmail.com"> <pre wrap="">I know I'm over-posting, but honestly you don't see a difference between thanking active-duty soldiers for their service and "establishing the military as some superior caste to which the rest of us owe gratitude for all the freedoms and rights we possess." I mean, you don't honestly equate these things, do you? On 11/25/05, Gar Lipow <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:the.typo.boy@gmail.com"><the.typo.boy@gmail.com></a> wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">On 11/25/05, Louis Kontos <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:Louis.Kontos@liu.edu"><Louis.Kontos@liu.edu></a> wrote: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">If you have genuine respect for military personnel, for whatever reason, then it makes sense to speak honestly with and about them. Thanking them for a military adventure that you yourself call unjust seems rather hypocritical -- and condescending -- to me. I feel no need to thank anybody for doing something I consider unjust, notwithstanding everything you said about the military code. While you seem to appreciate the military code (at least those parts of it that mandate obedience and sacrifice, not anything else), you seem to lack an understanding of hypocrisy. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">That is true as far as it goes. But "gratitude" towards the military is not only hypocritical; it is truly dangerous as well. Zell Miller repeated a well worn right wing meme when he said at the last Republican Convention: </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">It has been said truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">who has given us the freedom of the press. [cheers] It is the soldier, not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom he abuses to burn that flag. [cheers] No one should dare to even think about being the commander in chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home Do you see how dangerous this will be if it succeeds? Establishing the military as some superior caste to which the rest of us owe gratitude for all the freedoms and rights we possess? Seeing the military in fact as the basis for those rights, and thus able to take them away on whim? That is what lies behind the whole "gratitude" line. ___________________________________ <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""> ___________________________________ <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>