SPC David Willis 2875313 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>We all served honorably. In my opinion it doesn&#39;t discredit what we did by questioning why we were there. Also if you made it through basic and a deployment or two you should have thick enough skin to brush off opinions. Why is it that many vets get seriously offended if someone has an opinion counter to a war they fought in? 2017-08-28T22:36:23-04:00 SPC David Willis 2875313 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>We all served honorably. In my opinion it doesn&#39;t discredit what we did by questioning why we were there. Also if you made it through basic and a deployment or two you should have thick enough skin to brush off opinions. Why is it that many vets get seriously offended if someone has an opinion counter to a war they fought in? 2017-08-28T22:36:23-04:00 2017-08-28T22:36:23-04:00 2LT Private RallyPoint Member 2875316 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>I think it&#39;s because may feel that civilian opinions are lacking context. Like people who compared less than 4,500 casualties in Iraq to 58,500 in Vietnam, and didn&#39;t get that they were spoonfed a wrong idea by the media. <br />I used to care some about that sort of thing, and just got over the idea that most people aren&#39;t critical thinkers, but mean well/wish they understood. Response by 2LT Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 28 at 2017 10:39 PM 2017-08-28T22:39:47-04:00 2017-08-28T22:39:47-04:00 PFC Private RallyPoint Member 2875317 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>It hard because you have much pride in your unit service and many times it&#39;s to protect the reasons for the sacrifice of comrades and of themselves. It can lead to being overly bullish to someone who doesn&#39;t have the same perspective. Especially those who have been downrange try to find a reason for the sarafices made there. Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 28 at 2017 10:40 PM 2017-08-28T22:40:04-04:00 2017-08-28T22:40:04-04:00 MSgt George Cater 2875319 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Because many people who express a contrary opinion don&#39;t do it dispassionately but imply some shortcoming on the vet they are involving. Response by MSgt George Cater made Aug 28 at 2017 10:41 PM 2017-08-28T22:41:02-04:00 2017-08-28T22:41:02-04:00 Sgt Private RallyPoint Member 2875371 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div><a class="dark-link bold-link" role="profile-hover" data-qtip-container="body" data-id="227037" data-source-page-controller="question_response_contents" href="/profiles/227037-spc-david-willis">SPC David Willis</a> I have not had a veteran tell me to my face that the Vietnam War was lost by our military. My best buddy was killed the day after I left country. I found out that he had been killed while in Okinawa, before returning to the states. At LAX, I was told to repent for my sins, and asked how many babies had I killed. These folks had a different opinion of the war, but they had no call to try and block my path and give me more grief that I was already feeling. They were maggots as far as I am concerned. If someone has a different opinion that I do, that is fine, as long as they do not try and get in my face with their opinions. Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 28 at 2017 11:13 PM 2017-08-28T23:13:36-04:00 2017-08-28T23:13:36-04:00 LTC Private RallyPoint Member 2875486 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>During VN, those who believed the war was immoral often felt that the soldiers prosecuting the war were, by definition, also guilty of immorality for doing the killing in a war they believed was immoral. Decades later, around the time of the first gulf war, society sort of changed their view, and separated the soldiers who were doing their duty, ordered by their country&#39;s leaders, from the politicians who made the decisions to go to war <br /><br />This led to the concept that you could be against a war, but still recognize and honor the sacrifices that the soldiers made in that war. The &quot;support our troops but not the war&quot; theory. And while that seems OK on the surface, and better than blaming the soldiers as they did during VN, I have always felt there is a disconnect with this concept. Because how do you really recognize the sacrifices a soldier makes, including loss of limbs, or the lives of friends and families, while at the same time telling them that you believe they made those sacrifices for nothing, or worse for some immoral intent. I think most soldiers want to feel that their country was behind them and felt that their sacrifices were for a worthy cause. <br /><br />So it&#39;s that &quot;worthy cause&quot; component that can become problematic to the vets and the civilians. Wars are started for political reasons, and looking back, it is very possible to say that a war was a mistake, or that the decision to go to war was a poor one. But where does that leave a soldier who paid a huge price in the pursuit of that flawed decision? And where does it leave a civilian who does recognize the sacrifices a soldier made personally, but honestly believes the war is wrong for our country and we should end it as quickly as possible?<br /><br />It seems to me that an almost unreconcilable dichotomy exists in the support the troops but not the war concept. It&#39;s better than blame the troops for the war, but to say that all Americans must support every war our leaders get us into without critical assessment is also wrong. I dont believe it is unpatriotic to oppose a war you feel is unjust. In fact, I would say it is ones patriotic duty to do so if that is what they believe. We can&#39;t blindly support putting troops in harms way simply because other troops have already been in harms way and paid a price. That is a circular argument that would prevent any political dissent on any war. Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 29 at 2017 1:04 AM 2017-08-29T01:04:13-04:00 2017-08-29T01:04:13-04:00 SFC Private RallyPoint Member 2875615 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>In my opinion, its because as humans, we have a difficult time detaching ourselves. So I&#39;m just going to ramble. Remember, these are purely my uneducated OPINIONS, and are open for further discussion and and learning on my part.<br /><br />1. As Service Members, we may or may not agree with the political purpose of the wars we fight in, but we do as we are contractually obligated, and fight anyway. Some people don&#39;t understand this, and assume all Soldiers have identical political beliefs as the head political offices that got the military involved. This often creates miscommunication between the person making the counter-opinion, and the veteran; as the person making the counter-opinion may come off in an accusatory manner, rather than stating a general opinion from a political standpoint, making sure to remove the individual Soldier from any involvement in the large scale political decision making process for<br /><br />2. As Service Members, we often find difficulty in accepting a counter-opinion on a topic we lost something valuable in; whether it be our sanity, a limb, a family member, a friend, parent, etc. We want to hold on to the belief our loss was not without true purpose, therefore, we &quot;must&quot; reject any opinion that attempts to tell us otherwise. I want to say its a type of Sunk Cost Fallacy, but there may be something more applicable. What we should do instead, is to not worry about the validity of the wars we fought in order to justify our losses at the individual level, but to focus on the individual service of those that were lost. This may help to still see the lost as having not done so in vain, but also open our minds to different political opinions about the conflicts we fought.<br /><br />3. As Service Members, sometimes we actually truly believe in the purpose of the war(s), and they actually have personal purpose to us; maybe even being the reason some enlisted/commissioned. This can create a Confirmation Bias issue, where a counter-opinion is going directly against the personal beliefs of that veteran, and they feel &quot;forced&quot; to defend their war, or else risk invalidating their entire service.<br /><br />4. As Service Members, we have a different perspectives on war than what the media provides to the outside; sometimes our perspective is TOO close to where we can&#39;t see somethings the media sees from a broader perspective, causing our view to be skewed. On the other hand, the media often doesn&#39;t have the 24/7 on-the-ground perspective we do as Soldiers, causing their viewers&#39; to have skewed views as well. This ends up causing two people with VERY different perspectives to not see eye to eye on very many issues that occurred in the same place. Take for instance the difference in perspective of PVT Joe Snuffy, on the ground in Al-Shaab, Baghdad; versus that of the MND-B Commander overseeing the entirety all operations in that area. PVT Snuffy may say his area was locked down tight (as well trying to imply the same for all of Baghdad), and everything was good; but in the broader MND-B perspective, the overall area of Baghdad may have ACTUALLY been the Wild West. Both sides of the argument are biased, regardless of directness of involvement, but that doesn&#39;t mean they can&#39;t realize that, and have a perspective based discussion.<br /><br />5. As Vets/Citizens/Republicans/Democrats/Liberals/Conservatives/religions/whatever else, we want to defend WHATEVER views we hold, regardless of what someone else thinks; and will often do so regardless of logic. This category usually sums up the majority of most discussions we have, especially on social media. Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 29 at 2017 3:05 AM 2017-08-29T03:05:23-04:00 2017-08-29T03:05:23-04:00 SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth 2875709 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>With some of them it hit the wrong nerve, especially if they lost a close battle buddy, or friend. Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Aug 29 at 2017 5:47 AM 2017-08-29T05:47:44-04:00 2017-08-29T05:47:44-04:00 MAJ Private RallyPoint Member 2876277 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>For the same reason most people get offended when others downplay or criticize something they&#39;ve devoted a lot of time, energy, and sacrifice to. Think about it. If you spent a year training to complete an Ironman triathlon and spent tons of money and hours upon hours of every day training, only to have someone look at you and say &quot;that&#39;s stupid&quot;, it would probably piss you off. And that&#39;s just a race. Add in all the emotions that come with a deployment to a combat zone and it all gets amplified even more. Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 29 at 2017 10:16 AM 2017-08-29T10:16:32-04:00 2017-08-29T10:16:32-04:00 SGM Erik Marquez 2876638 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>&quot;Why is it that many vets get seriously offended if someone has an opinion counter to a war they fought in?&quot;<br />Its all in the context and attitude of the asker <br />If they can show respect for the person and the duty they committed to, yet voice an opinion that is against the US being in that conflict I doubt most would get &quot;seriously offended&quot;<br /><br />If that same opinionated person comes across &quot;We should not have been there you just wasted your life fight for the War Machine, your an idiot and a fool to think this was about anything but greed and money&quot;<br />Well then Ms or Mr opinionated be ready to see what happens when you &quot;seriously offend&quot; someone that served their country with honor, fought with some of the bravest men and women this country has to offer, some of which did not make it back alive or in one piece. Response by SGM Erik Marquez made Aug 29 at 2017 12:22 PM 2017-08-29T12:22:06-04:00 2017-08-29T12:22:06-04:00 SGT Christopher Lachcik 2882357 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>They sound like children when they cry about how its useless being there. I didn&#39;t think any of my deployment was useless. I know exactly what the mission is during OEF, its not my place to question it or complain about it. Response by SGT Christopher Lachcik made Aug 31 at 2017 3:41 PM 2017-08-31T15:41:52-04:00 2017-08-31T15:41:52-04:00 2017-08-28T22:36:23-04:00