The US government paid football teams millions to "honor" local soldiers. This is part of what convinces so many Americans that they have to "support the troops" (which, in practice, means don't criticize wars).

The most important support Americans should give US troops is not to send them to fight a war that isn't morally imperative. They signed up to serve their country, not to build somebody's empire. War is hell in any case, but war for an unjust cause is hell at two levels.

I refuse to endorse some secondary kind of "support" which serves as a distraction from this essential one.