Memorial Day writing

Read Don Pelton's In Praise of Warriors, Not War.

Every citizen who understands that some wars are unavoidable and necessary owes this same effort – to understand what combat really is – to those whom he may ask to risk their lives. ...

And Charles Pierce's Loving the Warrior, Hating the Wars: Our Memorial Daze.

Our methods of repayment [to veterans and activs service members] ... are curious, to say the least. We let them get on planes ahead of us, with the elderly and the infirm and the toddlers, but we underfund hospital care... We pay tribute to them at ballgames, but send them into battle ill-prepared, and bring them home to decrepit facilities and heedless bureaucracies. We give them parades, but had to be blackjacked into giving them a "new G.I. Bill" that is but a pale shadow of the original one, which did no less than create the modern American middle class. ...