My blog reader today is full of people thanking the troops. Call me a cynic, but any validity that the sentiment has for me is dulled by the feeling that I’m not getting both sides of the story.

How does one even begin to honor and thank those that are willing to sacrifice their lives for their country…my country.

Let’s start with the idea that this is “my country” and these are “my troops.” This language of unification stifles dissent by making us internalize the idea that we are each individually morally responsible for the actions of our elected officials, even if we disagree with those actions. If this is “my country” and these are “my troops,” then I have to overcome significant cognitive dissonance in order to believe that the things they are doing are morally wrong.

How do you show sufficient gratitude to those that protect my family… all the while being away from theirs?

Are they protecting your family? From what? Only in the most vague and indirect sense are the military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan protecting us from a foreign threat. The more I examine the political and military history of the U.S., the more I conclude that our military actions have historically been just as much, if not more, about securing foreign resources and economic interests for the U.S., as they have been about protecting us from a foreign threat. This is not conjecture. History is full of quotes from politicians and business-people drooling over the natural resources they’ll have access to once a certain military action is complete.

How can I possibly say thanks to those that have actually laid down their lives for me and my children… while leaving their children without a father or mother?

Did they lay down their lives “for me”? I didn’t send them to war. I say, “bring them home!” I say, “I don’t support the things you are dying for, and would like you to get the hell out of harm’s way so you can stop dying!” But the way our political system works is that the voice of those who disagree is ignored, and they are still held morally responsible for the actions of those in power. And if I say, “They didn’t die for me,” I’m branded a traitor and a subversive.

Are there words big enough to convey the deep and abiding respect I have for our military men and women?

Probably not.

But in my own simple and humble way I just want to say…

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I’m thankful to those who sacrifice for me, but I’m scornful of those who send others to sacrifice for their own economic and political ends, and then who tell me it’s all for my own good. This Memorial Day, I will pay my respect to the military personnel who died for a noble cause, if you can find me one. Otherwise, I will mourn for those who died in service of a lie: that they were proud warriors protecting their country from evil, when in fact, they were proud warriors, being sent to die in the service of the all-mighty GDP.