For the past several years as I’ve been traveling around the country, I’ve been approaching soldiers in the airports and thanking them for serving for us. On several occasions I have noticed that it felt a little awkward for both of us. There are several reasons, some of which I am even just now learning as I produce this film and talk to more soldiers. But they have always appreciated being thanked, and I have always felt better having expressed my gratitude.
I started to think that it would be nice if civilians had a gesture or sign that they could use to say “thank you” quickly and easily without even having to approach. I did some research and found the sign that we are now using.
Is this limited to the military? Not at all. If you look around you I’m sure that you’ll find lots of people who are serving their communities, from local to global. If you appreciate their service, give them a sign. Say “thank you.”
Thank you for killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis in the name of the United States of America.
It’s not about killing, #1, it’s about serving our country.
Hey wait, let’s not thank them because they helped victims of New Orleans, etc., etc.
Get a clue #1
No need to study, your gov’t will pay you to kill foreigners.
Drive domestic! lol.
Oh, yeah… that’s right.
Thanks for reminding me #2.
Thanks for showing up 3-4 days late to new Orleans, and letting hundreds of people needlessly die, because the Governor refused to cave into pressure to federalize the State National Guard..
Way to easy to confuse support for our troops (a very philosophical yet personal action depending on context and issue) with support for the policies that misuses them. The negative phrasing of this same concept is more easily seen and used by our manipulative POTUS and his henchmen to stifle dissent.
GOUSA is being bankrupted to prop up a civil war on hold in Iraq. Makes as much sense with the same injurious impact as BUSHCO’s energy policy, education policy, healthcare policy and on and on without exception. Can anyone name one thing, JUST ONE THING, Bushco has done right?
I was a member of the Louisiana National Guard and was deployed to Iraq as an Infantry Man. I spent a year in Iraq patrolling the streets of Baghdad in a humvee. I really never wanted to go to any kind of war and joined the Guard to pay for college in 1999 before there was anything going on. During my time in Iraq I never had to fire my weapon once and feel very lucky for that because I spent most of the time there on the streets of Baghdad. I still after being home for over two years am uncomfortable in crowed places but that is the effect of a year of fearing for your life every day. Even with that I feel more patriotic then I ever felt before and really do not understand how people like you can live with yourself JPV. I am assuming that you live in the USA though. If you do live in the USA I think you should probably try living somewhere like Iraq for a year or two and then get back to us on the subject.
I can live with myself just fine. At least I’m not stupid enough to risk my life in order to make the world more profitable for American corporations.
We already know the gesture best suited to expressing recognition of the president.
..|.,
A gesture I’d also like to extend to #1 at this time…
Such widespread and rampant stupidity is exactly why the US is such a mess these days.
Somebody remind me again, why did we go to war with Iraq?
“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns”
— Henry Kissinger
#6–Thank you for your service. Joined the military to help pay for college and didn’t want to fight==but you “feel” patriotic and by direct implication think that your waste of time in the military is something all Americans should support?
Can you connect your dots at all? Or in the alternative, how does your experience inform us on the proper initiatives the GOUSA should take with regard to Iraq?
Aka–support for our troops, YOUR feelings of patriotism, have NOTHING TO DO with proper foreign policy. Thanks for making my point.
#5, Bobbo,
Um, er, he got a great price on that ranch in Crawford?
Back on point, I’ve got to respect the efforts of our troops, regardless of the missions they’re expected to carry out. Some don’t come back. Others come back disabled. I’ll salute.
I am with you Bobbo,
I am working as a civilian for the US Army in Germany and I have seen “kids” leave to go to the first war in Iraq and to the second war…they were afraid, but they went. A friend of mine is there the 4th time now…It was not the Soldiers decision…don’t let those who go (and maybe come back crippled or dead) pay for it.
I salute to all troops…no matter where they are. I am with them 100%. And I am proud to help them when help is needed.
Deehexi
A whole lotta thanks to the american army for screwing up Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq (to name a few) and probably even Iran sometime soon. They go places to ‘liberate’ people where they don’t need to be liberated.
Surprising how the Bush administration can’t put such men to any better use. And even more surprising is the american way of picking up a gun and terrorising a foreign country to pay for college. Shame on Bush … and the american people for electing him to office a second time and paying taxes to get your own sons killed.
Some dream you americans are living.
Such vitriol; lets forget about the armed forces for a moment, though I would argue that service under this sort of poor leadership is something to pity them for, at the least. How about the coast guard, or your local firefighters, and the search and rescue crews? How about the farmers who bring us fresh produce, the cooks who give us something to eat when we have no time, and the nice girl at the coffee shop to help us stay awake?
I thank them all. In some respects, with a collapsing economy, crooks and liars and epidemic unhappiness in this land, the American dream has become something of a nightmare, but still there are people to be thankful to, and thankful for.
Our troops get no respect from me. They are a bunch of idiots who are willing to partake in all of the foereign policy bullshit that is going on so that they can get paid and walk around with guns. If our country needed defending and you join the army to defend it, then you get respect. But joining the US army at this point in time, or being in it, unfortunately makes u a loser and all of your names will be recorded in history as a bunch of evilistic invaders. nice one.
JPV, eaze, (and others) you two are clueless. IMO you shouldn’t open your trap on this subject among educated people.
Find a way to learn something about the politics of war and national defense. Then find a way to learn something about the soldiers and armies who are charged with implementing the wishes of the politicians.
You are making a fundamental mistake, one that makes you look like fools.
To JPV, eaze, finger, and the rest. You can all go to whatever accursed place you believe in. Or Die in a Fire, whatever is easier for you.
The grunts on the ground aren’t plying policy, aren’t intentionally killing innocents, aren’t raping and pillaging for corporations. They’re just average Americans, trying to better themselves and their families. They go to work, get underpaid, and in some horrible cases, die doing it. You want to blame the leaders, the policy, the corporations? Go ahead. Leave the common man alone.
To the simpletons who go out of their way to disrespect the military I hope that someday a soldier gets the chance to repay you personally.
I forgot, for you nutjobs that believe the bullshit maybe that day will be soon after martial law is declared.
To put it in terms that you idiots can understand, “Fuck you and the little horse you rode in on.”
Two comments.
1. Watching that weird “thank you” hand gesture made me feel like I and the crew of the Enterprise were visiting a convention of the United Federation of Planets held on Rigel 3.
2. Why do these guys get special thanks? Why not a truck driver, a home builder, a tax accountant, an entrepreneur, an unemployed blogger, a lawyer, a writer of children’s books? I don’t get it. Leave aside the politics, why is a uniformed job a “special” job deserving of extra respect and gratitude? Because there is safety risk? Plenty of other jobs have that. My feeling these days is, rather than hear yet another government proposal to increase monitoring and surveillance of the general population, let’s have some laws passed which require constant camera monitoring and recording of all government employees during their working hours. Every cop, bureaucrat, elected official, on camera, and recorded, all day, every day; and the general public can see all these cameras on the Net. This is what we need to prevent abuse and corruption. And the government employees can all watch videos about how they should thank the general population for paying their salary and benefits, and creating the job that feeds them and their families. I’d like to see some gratitude flow the other way.
3. While I can understand the argument that our soldiers abroad didn’t make the policy or decide to be in this war and remain in it, against the vast majority of public opinion in the US, Iraq, and rest of the world, and I feel sorry for this situation, isn’t it a bit like when the German soldiers who did bad things said “I was just following orders”? Do we have to turn off our sense of propriety just because someone did what they were told, however hard it may have been for them? I don’t feel comfortable giving automatic blanket thanks to soldiers of any nation, unless I have a personal connection or reason to do so.
I’ve never seen that “thank you” before in public especially on July 4th when many of our naval men and women are on Manhattan leave.
It seems kinda hokie to me.
What about a, “hey guys, welcome back. and BTW, I picked up the tab”.
I love the anonymity of the web. It allows morons the ability to spew their tripe and ill informed misguided bile wherever and whenever they please (and I will be the first to admit I have done, and probably anyone that says they haven’t is either in denial or is a liar).
Guys like JVP and Fingerinyurface I do not like our current administration, it is run by Criminals, thiefs and Liars, of that I have no doubt. I didn’t vote for G W Bush (either time, I did vote for his daddy). I hold no party allegiance. And I am extremely disillusioned with what has come out of Washington over the last 8 years, I am even less thrilled with the current crop of candidates. But that is a topic for another forum.
JVP and Green, I will however Honor, Support and Thank those that have voluntarily joined the Military and for better or for worse are put in a situation that truly None of us understand how we ended up there in the first place (aside from the guise of our freedom being protected). I am sure that nobody but a infinitesimal number of soldiers join with the thought of “I get to go to war and kill someone” It is a specter that hangs out there when they sign up. Can you actually look yourself in the mirror and believe that they look forward to killing? Idiots.
And Fingerinurface, you had such an easy way about you in ridiculing us Americans but I noticed you do not offer up where exactly you are from…Perhaps it’s the skeletons in your own closet…
I have no problem verbally thanking soldiers when I encounter them.
I kinda’ liked this part of #22’s statement though;”let’s have some laws passed which require constant camera monitoring and recording of all government employees during their working hours”
A bit different than the reception I received following my return to Travis Airbase from Viet Nam.
No spitting or name calling except here, right? Shame on you people.
#7 – I can live with myself just fine. At least I’m not stupid enough to risk my life in order to make the world more profitable for American corporations.
And you are probably not brave enough to make your asshat comments in public, either.
You have to be quite a fucktard to blame soldiers for the failures of politicians, and quite ignorant to characterize soldiers as if they were a mob of bloodthirsty rednecks.
They’re just in Iraq for training they’ll need against USA citizens who don’t like our next dictator.
This is the kind of crap you get from a country bred on going to war. I do though, have respect for those soldiers who have taken a stand against this illegal war. Many in Canada.
#26 Your return may not have been different but if I had been there someone would have gone to the hospital and I’d been in jail.
#25 I have no problem thanking them verbally either.
#23 I picked up part of the tab at Keeneland Race track for a group of soldiers back here on medical from the Middle East.
I anonymously paid for a Marine’s haircut who was shipping out the next day.
We have adopted three soldiers who are “in country” in order to show our support.
If they were on fire I wouldn’t walk across the street to piss on some of these gutless wonders on DU. No wait, I probably would help them, ’cause I’m former military and it’s in our nature.
#26 The protesting scum would have gone to the hospital. Sorry, just wanted to make that clear.