There are quite a few veterans (and active duty) in my family and friends. Though I don't have first-hand knowledge (I was 4-F'ed), I have seen the strain of service on military families. It's hard. Like. Real hard. The sacrifices and stress during deployment cannot be adequately compensated by simply having the loved one home again.
Family life isn't easy anyway. And no one pays you to be a family. Complicate it by having a integral part of the family out of the country for four months to a year, coming and going at random times, or by moving the whole family to the oversea's base... For how long? Where's home?
It'd be one thing if they were just serving to protect their families. But they do it to protect all our families. Even the ones they disagree with politically, ideologically, or religiously. They serve U.S. to protect that right to disagree. It's called freedom.
Nothing sounds more ignorant than saying they're protecting oil, special interests, or an American economic empire. Even if the politicians that declared the war sent them for such reasons, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with their boots to the sand saying they went out there to make sure Wall Street had a big day.
They put themselves and their families through hell so that our families can be safer, closer, more comfortable, enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world, and be free to express ourselves. The least we could do in return is to tie a yellow ribbon and thank them for their service.
I salute all who served and the families that love them.
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