I am a veteran but lets look at a broader view. Wars we now fight are not directly for the protection of the United States but often for the advancement of U.S interests. Those interests are often corporate with its wars the grease that keeps running the machinery of the industrial military complex. That said, there is an argument for not being overly patriotic.
I am a veteran, and what's more important to me is sincerity of thankfulness rather than quantity of thankfulness, or what I call blanket thankfulness. I also acknowledge that not everyone is thankful; there are people who are apathetic or decidedly anti-military. I accept that other people have views that don't align with mine, and it's their right to do so.
I am proud to serve my country, proud to be a US Marine. I don't shove it in anyone's face, so there are people who don't even know I've served. I don't even expect thanks from people who do know, but when they do thank me, I am both humbled and grateful. If someone doesn't thank me, I think nothing of it, even if and when they go out of their way to avoid it.
I think it's their right to feel no gratitude, but I also believe that they don't stop to think that if it wasn't for the veterans, we would not have the freedoms we enjoy today. Randy is right, though, that today's "wars" are not in our best interests and so the youth of today minimize the sacrifice of those who go to "fight" those needless wars.
I am a veteran of the Vietnam Invasion and I don't thank veterans for stupidly supporting a government that makes war for no particular reason. The war in Vietnam was so unpopular that some people refused to pay taxes, and the government STILL wouldn't stop it. People who glorify death to support such a government need their heads examined.
It's religious: the whole country is possessed by a spirit of stupid.
B.H.Wilson 