Last Friday, cities across the United States celebrated Veterans Day. With parades and sometimes somber memorials, communities from Tobyhanna, Penn., to our own campus honored those who have served their country.

Coordinated by the Associated Students of Madison's Support the Troops Campaign, Madison held a small parade for veterans along State Street and Library Mall. The parade was small — only about 70 participants — but peaceful, with only a handful of protesters on Library Mall.

Madison has come a long way from the height of the protest movement during our parents' generation. The 1979 documentary "The War at Home" depicted the UW campus during the 1960s and early 1970s, when the protests against the Vietnam War at times overtook the campus and ended in violent clashes with the police. Madison has changed dramatically from war protesters being tear-gassed inside Ingraham Hall to having the first parade for veterans in 20 years.

As a veteran, I would like to thank the campus for both holding the parade and honoring those who have served in the military. Despite the scandals in Iraq and Afghanistan concerning detainee abuse, Madison and UW as a whole realize that veterans and those currently serving are not like Lynnde England and Charles Graner.

Most of us who wore the uniform also have been sickened by the photographs at Abu Ghraib. We who served in the armed forces are not baby-killers and warmongers; we are human beings. Despite the image of the military in the media due to the detainee abuses, the military in fact does care for human life and the people for whom they are fighting. In Iraq, only .05 percent of U.S. troops were accused of misconduct in 2004, as compared to 15 percent of NYPD officers in the same time period. There may be a few isolated personnel in the military who are mad, crazed killers, but the vast majority of veterans respect human life and resort to violence only as a last resort. After all, we want peace in Iraq and Afghanistan as much as the rest of the world; veterans are the ones who continue to make the ultimate sacrifice trying to bring peace to countries that have known war for longer than most of us have been alive.

With 160,000 American troops in Iraq and 18,000 in Afghanistan (along with thousands deployed all over the world in support of the Global War on Terrorism), our generation is continuing to feel the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to MSNBC, as of Nov. 15, 2005, there have been 48 deaths of service members from Wisconsin serving in Iraq. Three are from Madison.

While these deaths touch all of us in the area and state, some of them touch veterans personally. The most recent soldier from Wisconsin to die in Iraq, Spc. Benjamin Smith of Hudson, served in the brigade I supported in the 101st Airborne Division. These deaths are in addition to thousands who have been wounded in combat operations.

In a city that has a long history of protests and anti-military sentiment, I appreciate that our community can distinguish between policy inside the Beltway and boots on the ground in Baghdad. Whether we support our current foreign policies or protest against them, our troops are the ones who are caught in the middle and need our support. After all, veterans are normal men and women who decided for a myriad of reasons to join the military, and 200 students currently on campus are veterans who have served around the world.

We veterans on campus are not bloodthirsty killers or torturers. We are crew chiefs in the Wisconsin National Guard, Marine Corps riflemen on active duty, and Army linguists. Those who committed war crimes should be treated as war criminals, and with this parade, Madison has shown there is a difference between these criminals and the veterans who have served their country proudly and honorably.

As a veteran of Kosovo and Iraq (and currently finishing a call-up in Arizona), I would like to thank the campus and city for honoring those who are serving currently and have served in past wars. I appreciate that we as a community in Madison can differentiate between disagreements over foreign policy and supporting our troops. I hope that the city and campus can continue to support veterans and remember those who have died serving our country.

Thanks, Madison, for putting differences with the administration aside and saluting vets on Veterans Day.

Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in linguistics.