Enough with America's 'thank you for your service' culture. It's betrayal, not patriotism.

Dennis Laich and Erik Edstrom, Opinion contributors
Fri, February 5, 2021, 6:01 AM

Excerpt:

Consent-free exorbitant expenditures might be excusable if they produced positive results. Only the U.S. military’s win/loss record since WWII is paltry at best: a tortured tie in Korea, losses in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and embarrassments in Beirut and Somalia — hardly offset by “big” wins in small wars like Grenada and Panama. That scarcely justifies such extravagent spending. Yet fear mongering from the military-industrial-congressional complex, and cynically crafted cries to “support the troops,” stifles patriotic dissent.

Demands for informed consent are unlikely to emerge among Americans long-trained to quietly capitulate to war industry whims. So, for now, it may fall on veterans themselves to disavow endless wars — the death and injury caused — and the unsustainable spending underpinning it all.

[yahoo.com]

Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich retired from the United States Army after more than 35 years of service. He is a graduate of the Army War College and author of "Skin in the Game ... Poor Kids and Patriots."

Erik Edstrom graduated from West Point and deployed to combat as an infantry officer in Afghanistan. He is the author of "Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of our Longest War." Both authors are senior fellows at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN) — an organization of independent military and national security veteran experts.