This is based on a comment I just left on a Paul Rieckhoff post that's a little buried and this has to be said, and it has to be said on Memorial Day... first off... I have never served in the military, will never serve in the military and don't have the guts to die for some one else's cause.  That out of the way...

Can we ban the phrase "died for our freedom?"  Because I can't think of a post WWII military death that qualifies.  Nobody fought for my freedom in Iraq, either time.  Or Viet Nam.  Or Korea.  Or Panama.  Or Grenada.  Nobody rigged elections in Nicaragua for my freedom or yours.  Even Afghanistan, which I do believe is a just war, has nothing to do with anyone's freedom.  Maybe in his fever dreams, Osama bin Laden imagines subjecting us all to sharia law but even if we let him attack us without response for years that will never happen.

I've been alive since 1975 and in that time we have never fought a war for "our freedom."  We've never even fought a war that we had to fight -- they've all been wars of choice.  So this Memorial Day I will not give thanks to people who "sacrificed their lives for our freedoms" because that's not what happened.  I'll apologize to people who sacrificed their lives for the ambitions of elite decision makers who need to be brought down a peg or two instead.  Because that's the truth of it all and that's what we're really memorializing.