Veteran's Day

Several people have up the poem "In Flander's Fields". Analog Kid has a photo pictorial.

Everything that we have in this country, we have because of those who have gone before us to protect us. Nobody in their right mind wants to die. Nobody in the miliary goes out in battle thinking "Gosh, if I catch a bullet then people will love me because I'll be a veteran!"

Soldier's, sailors, airmen and Marines, who would rather be sitting at home having meals with their families, celebrating the holidays with their loved ones, are doing what they do because they understand that this country is worth fighting for. This country is worth protecting. The rights and freedoms that we have are worth fighting for.

Nobody wants to die, but those men and women in uniform understand that it is better to die fighting for what you believe in rather than live in a world where freedom is just a wishful dream. So to all veterans, I say Thank You. I only hope that I can live up to your expectations.

There are more Veteran's Day links at Winds of Change and Powerline.

However, I think the best discription of all is from Mad Ogre.

Just a word to you cake eating civilians out there… You don’t say Happy Veterans Day. You don’t say Merry Vets Day. But just because you don’t have a meaningless Seasons Greetings for it doesn’t mean you don’t say anything. This isn’t some fat bunny in a sled passing around Jack O’Lanterns because it’s Santa’s birthday… This isn’t about some old fable-become-tradition. Veterans Day is a day for those that are still alive, and for those who are dead… those who died for your freedom to flip soldiers the bird and to call them baby killers and spit on them in the airport. Veterans Day is for the guys that died fighting for your personal independent liberty… It’s for that Veteran that walks with just a slight limp and seems otherwise fine, but he doesn’t have a spleen because an enemy of our country blew it out his back with an AK-47 so you can get 15% Off that new leather fat-ass reclining couch that your going to sit on to mock the President from while watching your 42 inch plasma TV flipping through the channels trying to find some Friends rerun. Veterans Day is for the guy that came home while all his friends didn’t. Veterans day is for the woman who gave up the best years of her young adulthood so she could press her hands over the sucking chest wound of some guy from her own home town 6 thousand miles away from home. Veterans day is for that old woman over there that raised 2 kids alone because when she was young she sent her handsome young husband off to fight for your freedom and came back as a flag folded into a triangle. That’s what Veterans day is for… and what do you say to those people who served? You just say “Thank You”.