Nobody cares about "thanking the troops". Most troops barely graduated from high school, have serious drug habits and work in some military warehouse stocking shelves.
Gun violence in the United States has resulted in more deaths than all of the wars in American history. Since 1968, over 1.5 million Americans have died from gun violence, which exceeds the number of American deaths in all wars combined.
Hard to pin down who coined the Libtard. Usage can be traced as far back as 2004 so at least two decades. I know Rush loved saying it and he probably popularized it.