I SUPPOSE it is fitting that a country constantly at war should celebrate its Independence Day by simulating "bombs bursting in air" with fireworks.
Surviving veterans of the Armed Forces are honored with parades and displays of uniformed memorabilia.  Little boys tote play guns in preparation for the time when they too shall be enlisted into what is  benignly referred to as "the Service."  Some of them will be shipped overseas to die "for their country."  Some will survive but to suffer from PTSD or loss of limbs.  This is the Home of the Brave, we are reminded.
Displays of patriotism are too ostentatious in celebratory mode, too overblown with simplistic, nationalistic plaudits for overseas involvement that is never quite so simple.  Couch it in terms of saving the world for democracy if you will, but war is still hell.
I thought of all this as I lay in bed last night listening to my neighbor's fireworks burst around me.  I am grateful that all I know of war is from reading books and watching films depicting it, from the horror of "Saving Private Ryan" to the utter absurdity in "Catch 22."
If war is hell, than our celebration of its soldiers is truly absurd.  They are not heroes; they are just survivors.