You know what Big Mick, threads about the military aren't about you, what you did or didn't do, and whether or not you feel like a failure. It just isn't.

Like I said, this seems to be a pretty gung-ho pro-military kind of place. Seems all some of you want vets here want to do is pick fights with anti-war activists voicing their opinions, in order to defend your personal choices to go soldiering.

I can agree to disagree, but I will not be coerced into respecting for the choice you made to become a soldier, or for what you did as a soldier. You and Norton1 seem to feel you have the right to bully people into respecting you because you were a soldier and know people who died in war. Very few human beings on this planet don't know someone who was killed in war, so that one doesn't automatically buy you respect. In fact, nothing in this life automatically buys a person respect. It gets earned. And believe me, neither of you have done a thing to earn mine.

Now, if you had come home from war and joined other anti-war veterans, I'd be more likely to listen to you. But your bullying tactics in this forum in the last 24 hours don't impress me in the least. You sound like a war apologist to me.

If you were, since the war, actively participating in the formation and maintenance of international peace organizations, development of non-violent methods to be used tactically in conjunction with non-cooperation and non-violent resistance tactics, or were involved in international diplomatic efforts or conflict resolution research--then I'd give your opinions some attention.

But as it is, from what I gather from some of you vet's and your supporter's posts here at Mudcat, all some of you seem to be doing is demanding respect you haven't earned because you think it is owed to you by everyone, just because you were a soldier. A lot of anti-war folks like me serve the international interests of humanity, not the petty nationalist interests of a single nation-state, especially the world's largest military superpower. So really, your demands for respect for "defending freedom" for the United States will continue to fall on deaf ears. Deal with it.