Dan Carmichael: War burden not shared by many

There are some interesting quotes in the March 1 column “When ‘thank you’ rankles” by Matt Richtel reprinted from the New York Times.

The subject had to do with when people say “thank you for your service” in conversations with veterans of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mike Freedman, a Green Beret, was quoted as saying, “They have no skin in the game with these wars. There’s no draft.” He was also quoted as saying, “Thank you for your service” is almost the equivalent of saying, “I haven’t thought about any of this.”

All of this is generally, but not always, true. We have sent our people in the professional military on multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan while the rest of us have acted as if we were not at war. The elimination of the draft was an error because the country does not share in the burden of war. That is not fair and not good!

Like many of my generation (age 82), I served in the U.S. military. I was in the Air Force. In the next life, I will be a Marine, assuming I can make it through boot camp! I think I can! At 23, I could do anything!

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Dan Carmichael: War burden not shared by many."