You are welcome. I am glad that you found my post informative.

Patriotism is food for the State, which is why it is relentlessly showcased. It is used at all levels, from the highest levels of government to our local parades and even in the elementary schools. The MSM uses it regularly. The stories showing the children of service members deployed being surprised at school with a surprise return are the most egregious IMHO. Everyone cries because the children are so happy, but no one ever asks the obvious question, would it not have been better for the children if their parent had been home the whole time?

I deployed for nearly nine months when my son was a couple of months old, and the night I returned, I was sitting on the couch and my now ex wife asked him where daddy was. He ran over to the TV and pointed at my picture. That was 1982, and I still relive that often, sometimes awake, sometimes dreaming, but it is still devastating to me. The next deployment my first daughter was born three months before I returned. I was misspelling her name for three months, because the sailor that typed the message informing me of her birth had spelled it wrong. No surprise that divorce rates are so high among military families. Some things can not be made right and stay with you for the rest of your life.

Patriotism is a very dangerous thing, having cost the lives and or happiness of countless people, including children all around the world.