The problem with the parade is that so many on the left still despise that we liberated Iraq from tyranny. They see the parade as a show of gratitude, but not a celebration of our accomplishment. We need to do both-thank our troops for serving, and celebrate our effort to make the world a safer place.

Richmond12 said: "We need to do both-thank our troops for serving, and celebrate our effort to make the world a safer place." OK, sounds good, if you're willing to celebrate and thank President Obama and his administration for their efforts to make health care cheaper and more accessible for all Americans.

Soldiers are not celebrated. It is assumed that they were too stupid to go to college and became pawns in a real video game played out by old, rich men - both military and civilian - in Washington D.C. They deserve a celebration and they deserve continued assistance, but the politicians are too busy fighting over abortion and birth control. They will not praise the soldiers until their plan of sending them into Iran is realized. Then they will pretend to care about soldiers and their families again.

Post war parades are nice when they celebrate a clear and decisive victory as was the case with the grand parades following WWII. There is something unsettling about parades that attempt to celebrate something we can't quite put our finger on, or maybe some uncomfortable truths we would just as soon not be reminded of. Truths such as the fact that Iraq is quickly regressing back to the dark ages with ethnic cleansing in full swing. Truths such as the fact that the White House, Congress, the Pentagon and the media have basically capitulated to Islamic sharia law the imposition of which is the driving force behind all Islamic aggression. The sickening response from the President on down to the recent Koran incident in Afghanistan is a prime example. We honor and respect the the service of the men and women who served and are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, we get it, that goes without saying. The best way to honor them is to stop sending them off to defend and protect sharia compliant goverments. Save the parades until we as a society are no longer afraid to say out loud who and what the enemy is.

mecn: Nice try. It would be hard to argue that the world is less safe with Saddam gone, and Iraq emerging as a democracy. Therefore, it is easy to argue that we DID succeed in making the world safer. However, health care is certainly NOT more affordable. I will thank President Obama for his effort in this regard, when, and if, it ever succeeds. Did Romneycare lower the cost of health care in Massachusetts?

Richmond 12, it's quite easy to argue that the world is less safe with Saddam gone since, with the support of you and your neocon friends, the Iraq war helped strengthen and embolden Iran and created the increased tensions with that country we have now. The neocon-inspired, Bush-led war of choice removed Iraq as a counterbalance to Iranian efforts to become a regional power, which has also allowed Iran to continue to strongly back and arm Syria. Add to that roughly 100,000 Iraqis and over 4000 Americans killed and we end up with a $4 trillion dollar Bush-created long-term that has greatly weakened our country in many ways that will be with us for years: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond - By Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, The Washington Post, September 5, 2010 ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302200.html )

Instead of a parade, let's see a plethora of jobs, services, and expanded services at VA hospitals.

As much as I would like for such a parade of celebration and thanks to happen, I can at least know in my heart that I am proud of and thankful to our veterans at every 4th of July Parade and every Memorial Day Parade.

MEC1: You stand alone in your wish that Saddam still had his rape rooms and toruture chambers open. I am stunned that ideology could cause anyone to make such a leap of faith. There are certainly valid arguments regarding the wisdom of the liberation. Fair enough. But to suggest that world would be safer with Saddam in power is not even worthy of a respsonse, it is off the charts.

Richmond12, your unquestioning support for the right-wing war in Iraq has not only blinded you to the current dangers it caused but to also fabricate an ugly pack of ideological deceptions about me. Not loving your war is not the same as wanting to see Saddam back in power. My focus is on American interests and in those terms - including threats to Israel - do you really think we're safer because we stopped Saddam's torture chambers? It's certainly good that he and his horrendous regime are gone, but how are we and our strategic interests measurably safer? The evidence is pretty thin at this point, especially since Iran has had a major impediment to its ability to project power removed. As Stiglitz and Bilmes state in the article I linked to below regarding Afghanistan, "It is hard to believe that we would be embroiled in a bloody conflict in Afghanistan today if we had devoted the resources there that we instead deployed in Iraq. A troop surge in 2003 -- before the warlords and the Taliban reestablished control -- would have been much more effective than a surge in 2010."

Our military personnel do not join so that they will be given a parade. Most of them would be more embarrassed, I think, than honored by such a thing.

Gratitude for what, allowing themselves to be propagandized into participation in criminal exercises? Pity, yes; support in rebuilding their lives, yes; but accolades, no.