Reply #35: Seeing anti-military threads has been my biggest disappointment.... [View All]

...since joining DU.

My family is largely Repug, and one of the things I always hear from them is the question, how could you be a Democrat when they're so hostile to the military? Such questions tax my patience, but I try to explain that the Democratic Party has a long and noble history of supporting the military, from FDR and Truman to Kennedy (a war hero) to Scoop Jackson and Sam Nunn, Bob Kerrey (war hero), John Kerry (war hero), Dan Inouye (war hero), the list goes on.

But when I see threads like this, it makes me sick to my stomach. I know that the majority of DUers don't think like this, but seeing people call members of our military war criminals and suggesting that by joining the military they "leave humanity behind" is just grotesque.

Members of the military are servants of the public. They do what they're ordered to do by the democratically elected government of the United States, even when they have personal reservations about their missions. Moreover, the humanitarian missions they take part in around the world are too numerous to count.

Anyone who thinks members of the military have no humanity has obviously never spent any time around service members. The ones I know are some of the most decent people I've ever met, and it's an insult to suggest otherwise.