Katlaughing, why is this thread not the appropriate place to express my opinions? All the originator of thread asked was "what did you do for Memorial Day"? The thread was not titled "How did you honor the war dead on Memorial Day"? which I would most certainly have respected. There was no vitriol whatsoever in that post. And I am distinguishing between the nation's and the nation's military leaders, the media, the military's organizations (VFW, etc) and the grunts. It is many a conscripted grunt's perspective I share.

Maybe you need to reread Big Mick's and a few other people's response's to my original post to this thread, to understand why I came back at Big Mick the way I did, eh?

Here again, is what I first said here...nothing vitriolic here, just a strong opinion which was different from those which had preceded it, which I also acknowledged. I simply replied to the questions asked by Banjer.

"I did what I always do on Memorial Day, which is ignore the war mongerers to the best of my ability, and enjoy an extra day off.

As to the "first Memorial Day since 9/11" thing, I think it is over reach, and an obvious attempt to keep 9/11 at the top of the news cycles. Cheap and sleezy militarist sentimentalizing and sensationalizing. Memorial Day is all about propagandizing for the military. Victims of 9/11 weren't soldiers, but civilians. We aren't at war, we were victims of a terrorist attack. I make those distinctions, despite the ruling elite's attempts to blur them, and make "linkages" where they don't exist.

I'm sure my opinion won't be welcomed in this thread, seeing the posts which have come before it. But there you have it."