[Versus]

I think my problem is that I still hold a distinction that separates war from every other problem systemic to the military. I understand when a veteran has a problem with the military. It's a special perspective that people who have not experienced it cannot understand, and I recognize the voices that speak of it. But I do not understand when a veteran speaks out against a war they have not been to from that same perspective.

Simply, veterans who have not been to war have the same perspective as everybody else. They can know about it's myth of heroism, it's diefied abstracts like valor, and it's convienent justifications like patriotism, but they cannot ever understand it beyond the boundaries of an acedemic discourse. It isn't real to them just like it isn't real to the rest of this fucking stupid planet.

For them to say, imply, whatever, that they understand for just being a part of the military at some point, like it grants some kind of special status in that regard, is like when a white guy says he is colorblind; it ignores a fundamental difference in my existence that I do not have the privilege to ignore.