If you hate the war, that’s fine. But you should still support the troops. They don’t get to pick where they’re deployed. They just gave the American people a blank check for anything up to and including the value of their lives, and the least everyone else can do is be thankful. Buy them dinner. Mow their yard. Bake them cookies.
Interpretation
Support for troops is crucial regardless of one's stance on war.
This quote emphasizes the importance of showing gratitude and support for military personnel, regardless of personal feelings about the conflicts they are involved in. It highlights that soldiers do not control the wars they fight and thus deserve respect and appreciation for their sacrifices and service.
In practice
In a speech addressing veterans, you might quote this to emphasize the importance of civilian support.
It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don't regret it. My regrets are for the people I couldn't save: Marines, soldiers, buddies. I'm not naive, and I don't romanticize war. The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. But I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job.
I don't have to psych myself up, or do something special mentally - I look through the scope, get my target in the cross hairs, and kill my enemy, before he kills one of my people.
MY REGRETS ARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE I COULDN’T SAVE—Marines, soldiers, my buddies. I still feel their loss. I still ache for my failure to protect them.
I miss singing every day. I can't sing anymore. My voice doesn't work. I have Parkinson's disease, and it sometimes takes my words away from me.
Fighting is not what I do - it's who I am. It's what I was meant to do, what I was meant to be. I knew that right after my first MMA practice.
The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.
Every day, I feel like it's the day I was freed from Daesh. Every time I speak about my story, I feel like it's the day I was liberated.
The murder of Sean Brown hurt my soul.
It is often during the worst of times that we see the best of humanity–awakening within the most ordinary of us that which is most sublime. I do not believe that it is circumstance that produces such greatness any more than it is the canvas that makes the artist. Adversity merely presents the surface on which we render our souls’ most exacting likeness. It is in the darkest skies that stars are best seen.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.