It’s Veterans Day 2012 and the US military is one of the country’s most trusted institutions. Seventy-five percent of respondents in a June Gallup poll either had a “great deal” of confidence in the military or “quite a lot” of confidence in it. By contrast, only 6 percent of respondents had a “great deal” of confidence in Congress, which finished at the bottom of the 16 institutions included in Gallup’s survey. How is it that Americans have maintained deep confidence in our troops and veterans, while the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have become unpopular?