When the Iraq war started, I was afraid I would see the same idiots who used to spit on soldiers during the Vietnam War come back to their old antics. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw people coming out in open support of the soldiers, even if they didn’t support the war. Since then, it seems things have changed for the worse.

“I don’t know why we have Veteran’s day. There shouldn’t be a holiday to honor murderers.” Yeah, I heard that last week. I thought this kind of moron would die out with the Vietnam generation, but I guess I was wrong.

This example of pure stupidity astounds me. I didn’t get into an argument with this half-wit, and I thought it was an isolated incident.

Then John Kerry said something stupid. Regardless of his intention, his comment that failing students could get “stuck in Iraq” is ridiculous. This implies that the soldiers serving our country in Iraq are only there because they were too stupid to do anything else.

A part of me wants to excuse Kerry for this because he is a politician. As far as I’m concerned, all politicians are just vote-whores who will say whatever they think will scrape up that extra vote, and I’d like to think people don’t take them seriously.

But Kerry is a veteran. He served in Vietnam. I would have thought a decorated officer would have more respect for the people in uniform.

So yeah, Kerry apologized, but I don’t think that makes a difference. This is cynical, but I tend to think that politicians are only ever sorry that they got caught. Kerry, as a veteran, should have had the foresight to realize that calling our soldiers stupid would cause a problem.

What I want to know is why we feel like we can treat our veterans like crap. I don’t care if it’s a college student who mistakenly equates soldiers to murderers or a politician making a bad joke – the point is that anyone who puts on a uniform deserves a basic level of respect.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, both Kerry and Bush suffered from people digging up “sources” to “prove” that neither man was what he claimed to be when it came to his military record.

I don’t care what someone’s political affiliation is. There is never an excuse to cheapen someone’s contribution to this country’s freedom unless there is irrefutable proof. As a journalist, I couldn’t believe Dan Rather relied on such a sketchy source to tarnish President Bush’s National Guard record.

It really does concern me that people seem to think it’s OK to run around and talk about our soldiers and veterans like they’re a bunch of stupid, murdering, baby-killing sociopaths.

Oh, but that’s only some veterans. Apparently, World War II veterans are exempt from this because World War II wasn’t really controversial, once we were in it.

Everyone seems fine watching the old men carrying flags at the front of a Veteran’s day parade, but they get cynical over today’s veterans.

Here’s an idea: Don’t project your opinion of a war onto the men and women who fight it. They don’t have a choice about where they’re deployed.

And don’t cross your arms and look down your nose and say that people who join the military are just a bunch of killers who want to go shoot people in the desert.

Many of the men and women in the military today signed up after 9/11. It’s not about killing people. They saw that our country needed people to fight a legitimate threat. It’s called patriotism, and it’s not a bad word.

Soldiers went days without sleep in the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom and when they did sleep, it was in holes in the ground while people took potshots at them. Now they’re stuck trying to sift through a hugely complex situation in the Middle East. Without these types of people, you wouldn’t have a country.

So rather than making an ignorant comment abut soldiers being murderers and being overly cynical because it makes you feel superior, do something positive for a change. Thank a veteran. It’s the least you can do.