Anian

Not the losing, the advertising of it on your car.

dc koop

As far as I'm concerned if families of fallen soldiers wish to display a gold star either on their porch or on the license plate of their car it's not for us to comment on it.
I dare say none of us have ever had to go through what those families had to.... something to be thankful for.

dc koop

Last I heard we live in a free country and I don't think they quite see it as "advertising"

mrken30

Free-ish, you should see my property tax bill.

Shard

Anything those unfortunate families do is fair enough, given their sacrifice. However, the broader view is that they are perpetuating the flawed "honour myth" that is getting sons/daughters killed in the first place.

It acts as a feedback loop for those in dire circumstances for whom the military is one of their few options. Sign up, hopefully survive and benefit, and if not confer some societal status to your family through a gold star. Something a bit insidious in that.

Lion in Winter

Indeed. No blame for anything could possibly attach to the families of those killed. Their loss is excruciating. That does not make it in any way ok to carry on using the young as cannon fodder for the profit of a few and somehow make that respectable by issuing little stars. The discrepancy in value is achingly sad. A licence-plate holder? What?

Anian

This is the worst defense of anything.

Hiro11

What a reductive, obnoxious and smug world view you have. First of all, the military is hardly a last refuge of the desperate. Secondly, the world isn't benign and the military is necessary for valid reasons. Thirdly, portraying Gold Star families as desperate for "societal status" and the deaths of those in the military as meaningless is offensive.

Shard: is there anything you like about the US? Seriously, anything? Everything you post can be perfectly predicted by thinking "what interpretation of this topic will pain the US in the worst possible light".

dc koop

You're about 60 years out of date on your highlighted statement. The military today is a highly technical force and many skills learned in the military can be applied in civilian life as one of my nephews found out.

Those who do sign up know full well "what they're getting into" The young Special Forces Sergeant La David Johnson certainly knew that when he volunteered for an elite combat unit and I'm dead sure he was very proud to belong to that unit.

I think Trump said the wrong thing to his widow when he mentioned that her husband "knew what he was getting into" Not words I would have used.

Unfortunately the death of this young man has now been turned into something of a verbal political football between Trump and the Congresswoman who represents the district that Johnson's widow lives in (Miami)

I don't see anything wrong in recognizing the sacrifice made by a member of the military in the form of a star. Displaying a star or stars in the window or porch of a house has been a tradition since WW2. It goes a bit further than just a name carved on a stone monument which nobody bothers to look at and never cleaned of pigeon droppings from one year to the next.

dc koop

He looks somewhat familiar to me. I'm guessing the Sheffield Forum possibly,

The S.F is in the main anti-American

dc koop

Like Shard you're out of date. Cannon fodder was more appropriate to the Vietnam war when it was fought by an army with significant numbers of draftees from the poorer neighbourhoods of America

Leslie

We will never hear from or about most Gold Star families. They go on with their lives and their heartbreak and never talk to the media and never get used as a political football. I think it's a comfort, albeit a small one, to have their loved one honored posthumously. The worst thing about losing somebody is the fear that they will be forgotten. Think of how much worse it is for those who lose them when they are still young. That's why the ceremonies and rituals matter.

Some people will be attention whores and/or martyrs. That's always the case with everything. It doesn't mean that everybody in the same situation behaves that way, quite the opposite I would think.

Shard

There is much I like about the US, you offend far too easily. I just like seeing through the BS, and I explained in this case where I drew the parallel from. I think US's war in Vietnam was a travesty, as did many millions of Americans. Equally, the Iraq Wars, unnecessary and destablising. I also have concerns about current US geopolitical strategy. Nowhere did I say the deaths of service men and women were meaningless, quite the opposite. I'm saying their lives should not be spent so casually on wars that are not entirely necessary.

dckoop: I'm not out of date. There are plenty of kids that can't afford college or are stuck in poor neighborhood that look to the military as a ticket out. Perhaps the scale and proportion is not the same as in the 60's but it's certainly still a part of military recruitment.

dc koop

The above would apply to the UK also. My National Service Days are long past but I remember that many of those who were Regulars came from the back streets of Glasgow, Liverpool etc.

The Army isn't the same as it was in Vietnam. The use of some of it's weaponry requires a bit more education than in days past. An illiterate or even a semi-illiterate would not qualify for entry.

As for the Air force and the Navy the educational requirements for entry are considerably higher.

Nutmegger

This completely sums up the reality of the situation. Very well said.