Veterans Day is always bittersweet — a day dedicated to living service members but that always brings to mind the brave men and women we have lost — but it’s particularly bittersweet this year.
This year is special, and a little odd, because America finally ended its 20-year war in the Middle East with the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan — for better or worse.
Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan … the average lay person probably can’t say where exactly American troops have been fighting — and exactly whom — for the past two decades, especially Generation Z, who have only known a world in which the U.S. and its allies fought a nebulous enemy called “terrorism.”
Twenty years and five named military operations later, America has lost more than 7,000 military service members overseas, according to the Department of Defense, with thousands more who came back, only to lose the battle with their demons on their home soil. And there are thousands more still standing, still fighting, who bear the physical and emotional scars of their service.
As strange as it might sound, we hope that someday there will not be a need to celebrate Veterans Day — that someday there will be no more wars to fight and therefore no veterans to honor. Naively optimistic? Maybe. But we can still hope.
In the meantime, we thank all those who have served our country for their bravery and their sacrifice.
