Neil S. on Washington Monthly writes:
I tell you this because it brings to mind one of the lesser costs of the Iraq War -- the disruption it imposes on the lives of able and intelligent people who have to put their educational plans and careers on hold for years. While everyone else is advancing, they're away fighting a war.
If you read Neil's whole post, it's kind of another "oh, golly, this guy who went off to war is great" type of thing.
I'm totally sympathetic to danger to people's health and lives, but I'd just like to point out that not everybody who goes to Iraq shares the burden Neil writes about-- for some employers, a military stint is a "plus" on a resume, and some of these people weren't even going to try hard and succeed in the school they left, anyway. I totally recognize that for some people, it's probably an interruption and a sacrifice in just the way Neil described it as, and I 100% support the legislation to give additional educational benefits to troops.
However I think sometimes people lionize the troops in a way that isn't helpful to the nation, and I think that I don't have to lionize them in that way in order to support them as working-class people, and as working-class people who have put themselves in a very vulnerable position relative to our government while under the belief that they might be helping our nation by putting themselves in that vulnerable position.
Again, if circumstances were different, I wouldn't even bother to make the distinction, but in our current atmosphere of jingoism and a "support the troops" attitude that goes to the brink-- where people are probably made to feel uncomfortable about voicing criticism that even might sound like not supporting the troops-- I've started to feel that it's necessary to start dialing it down a notch, and "remembering" through our words that the troops are just regular people like you and me, not white knights in shining armor and not super-men and women.
Especially since decorum and politesse demand that our political leaders can't always say this kind of thing, it behooves us to voice a reality check and say these kinds of things sometimes.