Comments on Mattress Sale

remember the conscripts & draftees who fought, were wounded, & died in any number of unneccessary wars this country has started or joined.

even spare some empathy for those so ignorant & naive they signed up to "protect" us from the iraqis, the panamanians, the grenadans, the philipinos, the koreans, the vietnamese, the nicaraguans, etc. etc.

educate your children so they'll never want to join the military.

I bought a poppy from a couple of VFW geezers to wear today. My wife threw it out, not knowing what it was :(

"they signed up to "protect" us from the iraqis, the panamanians, the grenadans, the philipinos, the koreans, the vietnamese, the nicaraguans, etc. etc."

A big ditto and a thumbs up for that one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_history_events

There's really not a lot of daylight between "mattress sale" and "getting out of my car for two minutes and thinking" from the perspective of those dead soldiers.

Memorial day is for the living. Let them do what they want with it.

With all due respect to the 4000+ soldiers who died in Iraq, let's put a cork in the trite cliched platitudes that they are over there defending our freedom. They are not. Saddam Hussein never put our freedom in jeopardy. Neither did the Viet Cong, the Sandinistas or Manuel Noriega. We have not had a legitimate reason to go to war since V-J Day in 1945. If only the American people would elect leaders who weren't complete imbeciles...

Beautifully written and true, Sean Nelson. Thank you.

"We have not had a legitimate reason to go to war since V-J Day in 1945"

I would guess 12/7/41 was a little like 9/11, but WW2 was to get Europeans their freedoms back, I don't know what country would have had the power to attack on US soil and occupy this country.

@7: Hitler was not a conquerer? Have you lost your freaking mind?

OK, the point is well taken and duly noted that the events of 9/11/01 did justify a response. But our response should have been to find Osama bin Ladin, put him on trial and make him answer for his crimes. A good president would have done that. Unfortunately, our Moron-In-Chief instead chose to attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden is still out there almost seven years later, and Idiot Boy, who when he took the oath of office vowed to defend this country against all threats foreign and domestic, indicated that he doesn't know or care where Osama is. And this in itself isn't an impeachable offense because....?

@7, your attempts to tie the Iraq war to the events of 9/11 means you fell for Bush's bullshit, hook, line and sinker. What an asshole.

Never question the motives of the soldier on the ground. His motives are pure. If you want to trash the motives of a president, fine. But remember this, we have it damn good in this country and it's because of the sacrifices the soldiers have been willing to make. Fine people. The best. And so are their families. They deserve our thanks.

@9,

Really. Every soldier on the ground has pure motives. Not one signed up because that was the best job opportunity he could find. Not one signed up because he likes the idea of blowing shit up. Worship of the military is like worship of the police: asinine and dangerous. They're people just like you and me. Some of them are there to serve their country, some of them are not. Some of them are heroes, most of them are not. Some of them are rapists and babykillers, most of them are not.

Ugh.Please don't remind of Bush and IRAQ. I was talking about the people who ACTUALLY do and DID attack the US. But Pearl Harbor(by JAPAN) was an attack on our military, NOT a US state/mainland soil. ASSHOLE.

Big ups to #5. As one of my friends said, "We didn't catch Ted Kaczinski (?) by bombing Missoula."

It's important to remember that the purpose of any country's military is to achieve political objectives through the use of overwhelming force. The purpose of the individual soldier is to kill as many of the enemy as possible. We've repeatedly used overwhelming military force throughout our nation's history (pre-1941 especially) for unworthy political objectives.

The solution? Draft the rich first. We'll never attack anyone, ever again.