My mother-in-law was a career army staff sergeant who spent most of her working civilian life also with the army as the administrator of a reserve center.

She was in an MI (military intelligence) unit and was deployed to a condo in Virginia. She was never around any combat. She gave so much of her life to the army. If anyone ever fucking criticized her for not picking up a gun and shooting at an Iraqi, I'd give them a big piece of my mind.

I'm very anti-war, I marched against that war. But fuck anyone who criticizes someone's military service. It's not like it's an easy job (well, maybe it was for Vance, since mostly he was giving tours to reporters and writing press releases). My mother-in-law would never act like anyone who went through military service doesn't, at the very least, deserve the acknowledgement that they generally put in some sort of effort. I will criticize Vance's service only because he doesn't respect other veterans.