Who Cares About Yellow Ribbons?

I'm not talking about what the yellow ribbons may or may not represent, I'm talking about the little yellow decals themselves. In other words, until the usual suspects made a big stink about the city of Toronto removing them, did any of the soldiers in Afghanistan actually know or care that the ribbons were on the trucks. Do they care now?

Allow me to be cynical here for a second, are ribbon decals and red fridays used because we actually think that they will really do something for the troops, or are they a cheap and easy proxy for doing something more substantial? I have a relative in the USMC overseas right now and I really can't imagine that a yellow decal really does it for him. I'd rather send him a note or something. Maybe I'm wrong though, but I just think it's all a little bit silly.