Remember today's veterans

Forty years ago, veterans who came home from Vietnam faced a nation beset by anti-war protests and quick to blame soldiers for perceived problems. This heaped difficult burdens on the backs of people already struggling with the normal troubles adjusting from war to everyday life as civilians.

Today's returning veterans face a different sort of challenge that can be just as difficult. They come home to a nation that mostly honors their sacrifice, if reminded of it, but that has largely forgotten it is fighting a war on two fronts.

Recent Election Day exit polls bore this out. Most people (60 percent by one count) said the economy was the top issue of the day. Health care also ranked fairly high. But the war ranked low among topics of interest. A growing consensus seems to feel it's time to end the nation's involvement in Afghanistan, but many people clearly aren't thinking much about the men and women who are putting their lives on the line there and in Iraq.

And that is disturbing.

Regardless of one's opinion about whether the nation should continue its current path on those fronts, the military's prime reason for being there is to eliminate enemy forces that are trying to gain strength so they can threaten peace and freedom in the United States and elsewhere. That has been the primary purpose for missions involving the United States' armed forces since the beginning of the republic. There is nothing cliche about saying the freedoms we enjoy today were bought by the blood of soldiers who were willing to die in our defense. That is a particularly profound thought today when the military is made up entirely of volunteers.

Veterans Day offers a perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on these sacrifices and to honor both those who have served and those who still serve today. Originally, the day was set aside as Armistice Day to honor the veterans of World War I, which had been dubbed the war to end all wars. That, of course, turned out to be a naive expectation, and in 1954 it was changed to Veterans Day and made a day to honor all those who served in the military. Unfortunately, there appears to be no end to the need for people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to preserve freedom.

Unlike virtually every other nation, the United States does not exist because of an ethnic group or common religion. It exists because of an idea expressed both in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, that people who govern themselves can best achieve happiness and prosperity, and that rights and liberty have a divine origin.

Those who come home from the world's current hot spots tend to have a clearer understanding of this than many who take comforts for granted. The people of the nation owe them honor, respect and, perhaps most of all, awareness.