Today is Veteran's Day

Today is Veterans Day here in the land of the Double Whopper with extra cheese. I honestly did not realize this until about 5 minutes ago. Today is a day in which we are all given an opportunity to express some sort of gratitude to all the men, and recently more and more women, who have sacrificed of themselves to serve our country and defend our freedom. I suppose this day is all the more poignant following the recent deaths of our soldiers in Afghanistan as well as the mass murder of soldiers at Ft Hood by a Muslim terrorist who himself was a member of our armed forces.

My father was a veteran. He was a graduate of West Point military academy. Oddly, he was not proud of this. When West Point came looking to recruit me, due to my high grades and test scores, my father fought tooth and nail to stop me from going. I have never fully understood this, and considering where I ended up going as a result of his interference, I can't help but wonder if I'd have been much better off had I fought a little harder. Who can say? I might've ended up in the Middle East and been killed. I'll never know. Regardless, following my father's death I took as much of his remaining West Point items as I could find and stored them away. He may not have been overly proud of his achievement, but the rest of the family is. His sheepskin West Point diploma hangs on my wall.

I cannot say that I fully understand why we invaded Afghanistan and have remained there for the past 7 or 8 years fighting a random and rambling enemy. I cannot say that I fully understand why we invaded Iraq other than that our President was informed that Saddam had acquired nuclear weapons capabilities. We did eventually find evidence that supported this, but it appears that most of whatever he had was quietly shipped off to Syria to avoid capture. Whatever the case, and whatever the reason, I want to express my support of our military for the sacrifices they are making in going to these Godforsaken places and risking their lives every day.

Happy Veterans Day!