We thank the troops, but for what?

I was sitting in class and we were doing the "introduce yourself" thing. When they came to the guy sitting in front of me, he mentioned that he was in the National Guard. The professor, almost reflexively said, "Thank you for your service." I've seen this a fair amount lately. Whenever someone walks by in a uniform, or mentions military service, a hand goes out and a sincere "thank you for your service" is said.

I don't know how all this got started, but it seems to have seeped into the culture and it's worth looking at.

The first thing that strikes me is that the U.S. military is not a neutral organization. What does that mean? My wall calendar this year is The New York Times' "Century of Front Pages." This month's front page is January 28, 1973, which announced the Vietnam Peace Pact. In a little box just above the fold it lists "The Toll" that quantifies the war casualties (the figures have since been adjusted up): Americans killed, 45,933; South Vietnamese, 183,528; North Vietnamese and Vietcong; 924,000. Those are military deaths; it lists another 460,000 civilian deaths.

According to 2007 figures from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. currently has troops stationed in 150 countries. There are still tens of thousands of troops in Germany, Japan and Korea from World War II and the Korean War. It has major deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq where it is fighting and trying to extricate itself.

The U.S. military is an instrument of force designed to extend and protect U.S. interests globally. It has wrought enormous violence and destruction on the world. For those serving in this institution there is a price paid. We hear of the horror stories, the injuries and amputations, the suicides, the post-traumatic stress disorder. Typically, veterans do not want to talk about what they've experienced because — on so many levels — military service is horrible.

I know some people say "thanks" because they don't want the current legacy to be like that of Vietnam where it was said that returning soldiers were spit on at the airport — remember Stallone whining about that in "Rambo?" But that's a myth: The excellent film, "Sir! No Sir!" points out that GIs returning from the airport didn't even take commercial flights. The vets in that film are GI resisters from the Vietnam era. Some served in the country, others ended up in jail for refusing to be deployed. Today, we have groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War, individuals who have refused deployment (and gone to jail for it) and hearings on war crimes committed in Iraq.

The point of the U.S. military is to extend U.S. power (and markets) worldwide. I don't think the intention of people saying "thanks" is bad — but it's not right. Rather than thanking people for serving, we should be questioning what they're being asked to serve.