It is time we start asking these tough questions [ and speaking out on what is really going on ], rather than blindly supporting and "honoring" our military and its members. In San Diego, the tough questions and ugly realities will be ignored yet again this Veterans Day. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports:
And, finally, they get a parade.As the last U.S. Marines return home from Kandahar this month, the San Diego Veterans Day Parade will for the first time be a tribute to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Tuesday's celebration won't be the tickertape New York City parade that Desert Storm veterans got when they returned enmass from that 1991 battle.
But for combat survivors who have trickled home in bits and bunches since 2001, it’s something.
“I think it’s extremely fitting, given the last 14 years of what we’ve been involved in,” said John Szczepanowski, 45, who retired from the Marines in September after serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Desert Storm.
“It’s a good tribute because our era of war was one of the longest,” said Ryan Panganiban, a 30-year-old former soldier who did 18 months in Iraq from 2004 to 2005.
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/health/military_veterans_va/news.php?q=1416503351