IT'S BEEN OVER 35 years since we had a Selective Service Military Draft, and so few now serve in our military—I thought it would be an important idea to smash a few of the civilian stereotypes about our military members in an effort to educate the public.

As with every Memorial Day weekend, every year, we'll have to bear through watching politicians show up for their annual photo-op and suffering through listening to them speak about our sacrifices—invariably they misspeak, too often, totally out of context.

We'll hear them say things like "They're all heroes!" This has become a cliché and is really a disservice to those vets we consider true "heroes." Approximately 80% of our forces serve in non-combatant rear-support roles and never even come close to even the opportunity to perform heroically. They rarely get injured in training, let alone wounded in combat and return home after serving honorably and have very little negative financial impact on the almighty American Taxpayer.

About 10% serve in direct combat support positions which, on occasion, have some risks—and only the remaining 10% serve in combatant roles. My point being, the majority of our veterans (while certainly patriotic), do not in any sense of the word hero, consider themselves to be heroes! In fact, it makes most of us very uncomfortable because it just demeans the value of the word and the sacrifices made by others, and violates our sense of humility with overuse or misuse! My hope is that we will garner renewed respect and correct usage in the civilian community (especially amongst journalists and politicians).

Two other lines I hear frequently used out of context is, "It's an ALL VOLUNTEER force, now-a-days" and "Well, they VOLUNTEERED!" As if it's the service person's fault if they got injured or wounded! I heard this one from one of my own family when I came home from Vietnam—"Well, it's his own fault for volunteering!" As if soldiers are the ones that determine American National Security interests and policy, and where and when they are sent into harms way? Nothing could be further from the truth!

We do volunteer, but only to serve in just causes as determined by the President (in his role as Commander-In-Chief), declared by a majority of the Congress and supported by the American People at-large. We absolutely do NOT volunteer to get involved and risk our lives in Unjust Wars like Vietnam and Iraq, or, to have our patriotism prostituted like some sort of whores of war, or, to be little more than a bunch of underpaid mercenaries!

Nothing could be more demoralizing, than when soldiers learn their mission is UNJUST!
Today, there's a lot of "spin masters" trying to call into question the patriotism of people who are speaking out in dissent on Iraq and trying to say such talk demoralizes troops!

Dear readers, this is pure BULL! Please do not believe it and don't even repeat it! It is our duty as citizens to exercise our First Amendment Rights and political dissent is still the highest form of patriotism! We now have many retired Generals publicly speaking out—so, if anyone tries to give you any grief about speaking out, just tell them,"Hey, I'm just repeating what the soldiers and their Generals are saying!" That will shut them up! At the very least it will help cleanse the brain-washed! Well, hopefully?

Another misused cliché we'll surely hear this Memorial Day weekend is "They GAVE their lives…" This is one of the worst lines veterans ever hear! Believe me, please, no one freely "gives" up their life. We freely risk, but when lives are lost almost invariably they are violently taken from them, often, in the most horrific way that few civilians can even begin to imagine in their worst nightmares! Service is all about selfless sacrifice!

The truth of the matter is, every professional soldier's hope is that they will train and be adequately equipped to provide an effective defensive presence and succeed in the deterrence of war, maintaining détente, and will never, ever have to engage in combat, let alone die fighting. It's all about training, preparing, defending democracy and defeating the enemy through our diplomatic and political means.

Sure, we will fight, and fight valiantly, if we must, but even then it all about surviving to fight another day! As General Patton said, "I don't want any of you to die for your country—I want you to kill the enemy so those S.O.B's die for their country and all of us can fight another day and can go home in victory!" When our soldiers die in military service—they more often than not, die for somebody else's country or cause!

The facts and context is important to the truth being accurately recorded in history—and from preventing lies to become myths! It's also important to emphasize the extraordinary selfless service of all of our military members. Especially, now in this sad chapter of our American history where so many wouldn't lift a finger to help a neighbor!

Please Remember: Our freedoms are provided and protected by a passionately patriotic few that would risk their lives for total strangers in distant lands—and YOU!

Another line that just makes me cringe is, "We can never fully repay our debt to our veterans!" That's true, but it's often used in the context of some sort of a cop-out by our politicians and it really angers disabled vets especially! We can, and should, do our duty as citizens by never, ever again sending our military into unjust wars like Vietnam and Iraq AND we can fully fund the Veteran's Administration by making that our #1 priority!

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PLEASE write all of your elected representatives and demand that they "Support Our Troops by getting them Out of Iraq AND Fully Fund All VA Healthcare!"

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It will only take a few minutes, just fire up your computers, load in the e-mail addresses of your Congressional Representative, both Senators and the President (and you can save the e-mail to re-send it as frequently as you like).

That's a small price to pay to prove your patriotism—I just hope it's not too much to ask you to sacrifice? We vets and our families will handle all of the ceremonial matters and mourning on your behalf—deal?

Here's the kicker! IF enough of you help us to help ourselves and we succeed in getting the VA fully funded—I promise you that when the Selective Service Draft is re-instated (and mark my words, we will have to eventually re-instate the draft, due, in large part, to the irresponsible Republican era of errors), many vets will do their part to see that this time there are no deferments for the children of the wealthy and politicians! That will get America back on the right track of only going to war, justly, as an absolute last resort!