This was ori=ginaly posted by Lt. Nixon, to the VetVoice blog, February 18 2008
For our generation, the percentage of veterans is incredibly small compared to other conflicts in our nation's history. I don't think anyone here is going to dispute that. So to effectively alter the course of nation's politics, it will be necessary to win over the support of our civilian counterparts in our democracy. Therefore, it becomes important for us to effectively communicate with our civilian friends through various channels of media to encourage folks to understand some of our opinions (as diverse as they may be). While making fun of chickenhawks is quite hilarious and entertaining, I still maintain that we shouldn't put people on a guilt trip because they never served. I'd be battling with a large swath of the population if I chose to attack anyone who wasn't a veteran. If combat veterans were to say that only those who have experienced combat were allowed to talk about Iraq or Afghanistan, well I'd have to stop blogging (I don't count indirect fire as combat). I think we should give respect where it's due, but I'm afraid of trouncing into the "Moral Authority" realm, which can effectively stifle any sort of dialogue. Also, this can lead to personal attacks on your integrity and credentials from the opposition, since you would be attacking someone else simply based on your previous military experience without reason and rationale to back it up.
Boadicaea brought up an interesting tidbit of information concerning the protests in Berkeley providing an example of the use of "moral authority".
The woman with the Marine son on his 4th deployment that gets her photo all the time, clutching his picture, made a young woman next to me cry when she came over, found out the woman's husband was Muslim (American, 3d generation) and snarled at her that he should be tortured. Her photos are always so beatific. She called me a liar about my son's service and screamed that al Qaeda was watching me and they'd go out and kill more service people because of me, REAL soldiers not lies like my so called son. It was said very nasty and it hurt for a long time. She ain't what her pitchers look like!
Of course I respect a mother who has a son in harm's way, but does that give her the right to start calling Ms. Boadicaea a "liar" because they had a political disagreement? Am I not allowed to disagree with Cindy Sheehan when she hung out with notable dictator Hugo Chavez, because she lost a son in Iraq? I maintain that someone's personal integrity should be respected, but I fail to see why it can be used to silence any dissenting political opinion. Mainly, putting up a barrier between "us" and "them" is counter-productive, since that is probably not going to help change the way things work in our country. I'm curious as to people's thoughts on this.
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