Do you put your hand over your heart during the National Anthem?

[Victor_c3]

99. I stand at the position of attention (like I did when I was in the army)

The anthem evokes strong emotions from me. I joined the army in 1997 and grew up believing that our military was a tool that would be used to make the world a better place. I was eager to be an infantryman as I wanted to be on point when it came to helping and defending others not as fortunate as me.

Obviously that wasn't what my service really was used for. I was stupid to believe that childhood distortion of mine. I fought in a war that was fought for no reason other than revenge for the attacks on September 11th. The Iraqi people had nothing to do with that, but that small detail didn't seem to matter to the majority of Americans. The American people overwhelmingly supported bush during the early phases of the war. I used to frequent right leaning political forums back in that time and I heard thing like "we should let our military take off their mittens and fight a real war" or "nuke the whole place and turn it into a glass parking lot". Those aren't comments made by people who are interested in nation building and giving freedom to less fortunate. That sounds like a war for the purpose of killing lots of Arabs to me.

The anthem, in me, evokes both positive and negative. I feel patriotism is a tool to control the mass, yet I want to believe in our nation.