It's easy to talk the talk when someone else's ass is on the line.
I'd bet a cup of coffee, half these "gung ho" types never served a day in their life. Most of the vets I know are the last to start calling for war, and many combat vets just avoid the subject.
Worth repeating. You have just said precisely what I have observed. All the gung-ho types are rarely ever Vets. Most Vets are much more reserved about going to war, because they know the real cost.
So if you never taught you can’t talk about education?
If you never studied economics you can’t discuss the economy?
If you never wrote a novel you cannot discuss “Great Expectations”.
There was no howling mob calling for war. Rather there were endless discussions, meetings with the UN, inspections and actions for ten years. Meanwhile Saddam is thumbing his nose at everyone, training terrorists at Salman Pak, funding al Queda terrorista in the Philippines and Northern Iraq and quite likely against the US in at least TWO incidents on our soil. Iraqi connections appear in any serious examination of Oklahoma City. The chief instigator of the first World Trade Center attack immediately fled to Baghdad.
The great majority of veterans around here in fact DID support the invasion of Iraq.