Conventional wisdom is that we must support our men and women in uniform. That sounds reasonable to me. After all, it’s not as if they are the ones making policy decisions. They deserve our support–up to a point.

Where I do have a problem is glorifying war and the soldiers that fight it.  That our military personnel go into harm’s way, face mortal danger, and perform acts of heroism, doesn’t change the fact they are fighting unnecessary, brutal, and illegal warfare in someone else’s country.

In my mind, our soldiers (even if they are nice people) should never be called “heroes.” Whenever we glorify military service and killing, it only makes it easier for our government and the Military-Industrial-Media Complex to sell our perpetual military incursions, the current one, the next ones, and the ones after that.

Albert Einstein felt even more strongly:

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”