vets, military families, and peace activists

Why do vets, who have chosen to pick up guns and shoot people, be the pawns in the killing, harming, raping, destroying of countries and individuals, been trained as killers even if they are among the rare today in the military who never actually killed - why is their word, their voice so much more valued and valuable then the people who have refused to pick up guns, refuse to be pawns, refuse to hurt others?

And why are women some of their most ardent worshipers and enablers?

How can we say we love the bullets but hate the gun? It is crazy.

I do not love soldiers, veterans, or any part or parcel of the military industrial complex. I feel for especially those soldiers whose choices really are so limited, the military is the only "choice": as people who are threatened with jail or military.

I even feel for those who have thoroughly convinced themselves that indeed, being trained to kill, as distasteful as it might later seem, was really, really, really their only choice in life and not just easier and more convenient then doing whatever it takes to figure out how to survive without making this horrific, immoral 'choice'.

My heart also goes out to those youth whose idealism, nationalism, and machismo desires to bound about the earth fighting for his country are savagely exploited by the powerful, manipulative military industrial complex.

And at the same time, unlike christians who blame/credit their god, I believe everyone must be held accountable for his or her own behavior and actions.

I remain defining the job of a soldier as the ones who advance and protect U.S. corporate power and rule around the world and especially in those countries we are attacking and occupying. I will always abhor the job that soldiers decide & are trained to do.

I do NOT support men going off and killing, raping, torturing people for any reason.