Thanking Soldiers For Their Service

Elizabeth Samet on civilians thanking soldiers for their service (via the Dish):

“Thank you for your service” has become a mantra of atonement. But, as is all too often the case with gestures of atonement, substance has been eclipsed by mechanical ritual. After the engagement, both parties retreat to separate camps, without a significant exchange of ideas or perspectives having passed between them. When I broached the subject with a major with whom I had experienced the phenomenon, he wrote a nuanced response. Although he’s convinced that “the sentiments most people express appear to be genuinely FELT,” he nonetheless distrusts such spectacles. “Does the act of thanking a soldier unconsciously hold some degree of absolution from the collective responsibility?” he asked.
No reasonable person would argue that thanking soldiers for their service isn’t preferable to spitting on them. Yet at least in the perfunctory, formulaic way many such meetings take place, it is an equally unnatural exchange. The ease with which “thank you for your service” has circumvented a more enduring human connection doesn’t bode well for mutual understanding between soldiers and civilians. The inner lives of soldiers remain opaque to most of us.

I am very uncomfortable with this trend.  I think people are trying to make up for not actually serving by thanking those who do.  Then they can claim that they support the troops, and all is well.  I feel like we are sending these guys to suffer pointlessly.  Afghanistan, while it made some sense as a target, seemed very unlikely to be fixed by our presence.  Iraq made no sense whatsoever.  There was never an existential risk to our country from either place, and sending thousands of troops to die or be wounded seems like a waste.  I feel more like apologizing to the soldiers for not standing up to the forces for war.  Usually, if I get into a conversation with a vet, I'll only ask where they served, and let them talk about what they want to.