I received this as an e-mail a couple days ago. As always, I checked it's veracity before I pass it along. It's true.
I'm sorry you feel the way you do. But quite frankly anytime you would pis s on any veteran who voluntarily faced combat, you would pis s on these men.

A Tale of Six Boys
>
> Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth
>grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip.
>I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take
>some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
>
> On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima
>memorial This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and
>depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the
>six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill
>on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.
>
> Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and
>headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of
>the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you! guys from?"
>
> I told him that we were from Wisconsin "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too!
>Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."
>
> (James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak
>at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good
>night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave
>when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and
>received his permission to share what ! he said from my videotape. It
>is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in
>Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we
>received that night.)
>
> When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak.
>(Here are his words that night.)
>
> "My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad
>is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our
>Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best seller list right now.
>It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
>
> "Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the
>ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He
>enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his
>football team. They were off to play another type of game A game called
>"War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.
>
> Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands.
>I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are Generals
>who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You
>guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19
>years old.
>
> (He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene
>Gagnon from New Hampshire If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment
>this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you
>would find a photograph... a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put
>that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years
>old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.
>
> "The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant
>Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They
>called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When
>Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go
>kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was
>talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and
>I'll get you home to your mothers.'
>
> "The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima
>Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the
>White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He
>told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit
>the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take
>your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun,
>doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only
>27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images
>of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age
>of 32 .. ten years after this picture was taken.
>
> "The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from
>Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is
>now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of
>the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the
>cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows
>crapped all night. Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin
>died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his
>mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A
>barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors
>could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
>
> "The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my
>dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad
>lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews When Walter
>Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained
>as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in
>Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know
>when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada.
>Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's
>soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
>
> "You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks
>these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My
>dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a
>caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And
>when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.
>
> "When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my
>dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me
>and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima
>are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'"
>
> "So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on
>Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys
>died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine
>Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."

Contra todo mal, mezcal; contra todo bien, también