gnu - No, man...you misunderstood the gist of what I was trying to say. I don't mean that people should not "support the troops". I appreciate what the troops go through, and respect them. What I meant was a social culture that idolizes the military (and the police, as Suzy suggested) in such a way that if a person objects to an unjustified war they are accused BY various super-patriots of "not supporting our boys in uniform", which is total bullshit!

I DO support the troops as individuals who serve...I do NOT support the unjustified wars. Understand? And I do not wish to be falsely accused of being unpatriotic or of "not supporting the troops", because I am against the war!

Yet anyone who questions an American war IS accused of that by people who should know better.

My way of supporting the troops is this: End the damn foreign wars and bring them home to their families and their own soil!

I object to any social order that elevates its own military so high in the people's minds that to dare to even question a bad war is to be seen as "unpatriotic" or "traitorous" or "cowardly". That's the way the fascist powers saw it, that's the way all dictators and fanatics see it, and that's what I object to. People should be free to publicly oppose a war and not be attacked in that kind of contemptible fashion for doing so.

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patusnret - I was referring to the per capita rate of gun violence in the USA and Canada, not a simple calculation of the bare total numbers, period. The per capita rate is a lot higher in the USA. I hope you know what "per capita" means, or I'm wasting my breath telling you this. And I already know that most Americans don't give a tinker's damn what's happening in Canada...or anywhere else outside the borders of the USA. Everyone knows that. That's why you Americans are so beloved and popular all across the world... (sarcasm) Your sense of exclusive importance is your defining national characteristic. You think no one matters except you. The rest of the world thinks otherwise.

By the way, I agree with you that guns themselves are not the problem. Irresponsible people are the problem. If you read through my posts with any real attention, you would have got that. I agree...HOLD PEOPLE responsible for their actions, don't blame the tools they use to commit those actions. I do NOT think guns are bad.