The big problem is that it's simply not true. 

It's one thing to honor people who work or have worked for the federal government, including those in the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, and to thank them for "their service." It's quite another thing to say something about them that simply isn't true. 

How about the veterans who "served" in Iraq? Didn't they defend our freedoms?

Actually, not. The U.S. invasion of Iraq was a pure "war of aggression," a type of offensive war that was condemned as a war crime at Nuremberg. Iraq never invaded the United States and tried to take away our freedoms. In the war against Iraq, the U.S. government, operating through the Pentagon and its troops, was the aggressor. 

Given such, how in the world can it be said that veterans who "served" in Iraq were defending our freedoms? Our freedoms were never threatened by Iraq. In fact, it was Iraq that was defending itself from U.S. aggression.

There is something else to note about the U.S. war on Iraq: It was illegal under our form of government. The U.S. Constitution, which is the highest law in the land, requires a congressional declaration of war before the president can wage war against another nation. It is undisputed that President George W. Bush never secured a congressional declaration of war against Iraq. That means that all of the death and destruction that veterans unleashed on the
Iraqi people was part of an illegal U.S. invasion and occupation.