LAT - I Don't Support the Troops

can't we legally execute people who don't support the troops?

i recall an executive order being issued along those lines.

 

I just hate people who stop at "invading Iraq."

 

Does slashing the budget for the VA Hospital system and not having enough money for effective body armor, while cutting taxes for the richest Americans count as supporting the troops?

 

I like this guy's honesty. He's actually saying what I feel others are afraid to (even though they feel that way). I don't agree with him but at least he's being honest about his beliefs.

 

Yup, I'd agree with halfbreed - at least he's honest. I think this man's story is accurate for most anti-war folks. In my opinion they need to learn to have some perspective and support our brave troops instead of clinging to some Quixotic effort at being "proven right" in their views, no matter if it endangers our countrymen or not.

 

This is where it starts. Liberals will start admitting that they too, do not support the troops. The next thing you know, you'll have prominent celebrities (Jane Fonda) insulting the troops and generating opposition to them. Upon returning from combat, the troops will be spat on and insulted. It's the Vietnam liberal reaction all over again.

 

You mean like rushing to highlight every failure and never mentioning their successes? Go ahead and check that box - it's been happening for quite some time.

 

This whole "support our troops" thing is pure bull****. It's propaganda - as if by objecting to the Bush Admin's policies that you're committing some cardinal sin against humanity.

But it's true, "our" troops have got the worst of it, by far - while we all got suckered, they actually got suckered so badly that it's put their lives in danger.

I don't know what I think of the war in Iraq, other than the fact that it's another rich man's war fought by poor men. But this "support our troops" garbage is the biggest steaming chunk of propaganda that the scaredy-pants Bush supporters have ever had the opportunity to wrap their thin lips around and suckle greedily.

I have said it before, and I will say it again - If I believed in this war with the same vehemence and blind enthusiasm that y'all seem to, I would have volunteered in an instant. I would have volunteered two years ago. I'd go over there and clean latrines if I thought it was helping a cause I truly believed was of desperate importance to the good of humanity.

But, I guess that's where the Foghorn Leghorn troops supporters draw the line. So, y'all keep beating your puffed-up chests - but forgive me if I don't feel inclined to march to the sound of that hollow thumping.

 

I don't know aside from putting a "support our troops" bumper sticker or two on their vehicles, what else did these people do to support the troops? Maybe bigtexxx or T_J can share some of their stories with us.

 

I'm sorry that you feel that most of our troops got "suckered" into it. Some may have but if you ask the vast majority, they weren't suckered into anything. You seem to have a rather low view of the troops. I have friends who have been in Iraq for mulitple tours of duty. They weren't suckered and don't feel that any of their fellow troops were. I'll trust their firsthand accounts.

Just because some of us have not volunteered or enlisted doesn't mean we don't support the effort. Feel free if it makes you feel better to think lower of those of us who support the troops and the effort but don't enlist. However, I have a sneaking feeling that you haven't volunteered to help every effort with which you agreed.

Your arrogance seeps through on your post. If you really want to engage in a discussion, perhaps you should treat the other side as people who are as intelligent as you yet have a different opinion. If more posters on this board followed those instructions there'd be a lot more intelligent discussion. We're not uneducated rednecks and it just strikes me as ironic that most on the "open-minded" side are rather closed minded when it comes to their views of people with a different political view than them.

 

Great opinion piece. I agree with him. I do not support our troops unconditionally, just like I do not support anything unconditionally. Do I support the work our troops are doing now? Absolutely!! But the day our troops cross that line of morality and legality, my support for them will end. To give you an example, I am an American, but I am a Muslim first and foremost. I love my religion and I love the followers of my religion, but I do not condone the actions of many in my religion. A person has a conscience and you have the rational ability to decide the morality and legality of their actions. If my hypothetical son killed someone, I would not support his actions. Similarly, if our troops ever commit atrocities wearing the American flag on their sleeve, my support for them will end.

 

I don't get this whole "if you support the war, why aren't you over there fighting?" argument. Are people not allowed to support a cause they're not actively involved in? If that's the case, does this rule apply to all causes? Or just wars?


BTW, here are a few pics of the author from his own website:

 

You support the troops so much you defend those that give them contaminated water. With friends like you, they don't need enemies.

 

They do feel that way? Why is it that you get to determine how othes feel?

And they say that liberals go around telling people what to do, and what's good for them. Imagine if I said I think conservatives really do enjoy killing people in other countries, even though they won't admit it?

This argument might make you guys feel good, but it has nothing to support it, and can't be said to be based on any facts.

 

Yes, they were. They were suckered into thinking they were serving a noble cause, or making the world somehow a better place - they swallowed that load of **** whole, just like soldiers have been doing for centuries. Maybe because they need to - maybe they need to believe that what they're doing is noble. Maybe the just don't know any better. And, in the worst case, maybe they just took the best opportunity they had to get health insurance for themselves and their families, a regular paycheck, some job security, or money for college. And who can blame them?

Let's cut through the garbage here for a second. What does it mean to "support our troops?" Does it mean your taxes help buy some of the stuff they need? Well, that's the case for anyone who pays taxes, whether they agree with the war or not. Does it mean we'll be willing to pay more taxes to take care of them if they're injured? To provide for their families if they're killed? That's clearly not what's been happening - most have had their benefits slashed. And the people who started the war are the ones who decided on that....So, what does it mean to "support our troops"? Do you think your magnetic sticker will suddenly be blown off by a gust of wind, travel across the ocean and a continent, and land in some G.I.'s front pocket just seconds before a piece of shrapnel would have shredded his heart? That's not going to happen...so, what does it mean? "Support our troops?"

In all practical terms, it doesn't mean a damn thing. It's an empty phrase, often repeated but rarely analyzed. It doesn't mean ****. If you truly "supported our troops" in the literal sense of the term, you'd go fight. If you just agree with a political office, then that's what you're supporting. Nothing you or I type here is going to stop a suicide bomber. Supporting a political position won't re-attach a leg blown off by a landmine. We're not supporting anyone. We're advocating a political ideology - and, in the long run, who is helped by that? The people who feed us those ideologies. They're selling, and we're buying. "Support Our Troops" is a bumpersticker, it's a catch-phrase, a soundbite, a vacuous slogan used by pundits to make other pundits look despicable - and distracting us from the fact that they're all despicable. And when we take up that party line and start tossing it around like we have some influence - then we become worse than them, because we're just their lackeys and sycophants.

And I'll say it again - if I believed in a cause so strongly that I was okay with other people dying for it, then I would volunteer for it. Maybe these deaths are just abstractions and photographs to you. I'm not okay with people being suckered into dying.

I am not on one side, and I am not on the other - so for "treating the other side as people who are as intelligent" as I am is, first, based on a faulty premise, and second, based on what the people I'm criticizing have to say. To get all puffed up with "OH LOOK! THE LIBERALS FINALLY ADMITTED THEY DON'T SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! HA HA WE KNEW IT ALL ALONG" is nothing other than another person swallowing garbage because they've been told it's nutritious and then expecting everyone else to follow suit. I don't buy the "support our troops" thing - so for one tribe to get together and say "OH THEY DON'T SUPPORT OUR TROOPS" about the other side is no different to me from one tribe jumping up and saying, "OH THEY DON'T RATCHET BEAVER HELMETS!" The "side" stuff means nothing to me. So stop getting all indignant and ready for martyrdom - and get over your "side." Maybe then you'll realize that the problems are much bigger than any side - - The problem is the sides.

As for this editorial - who gives a damn? More punditry, and more sycophants salivating over another chance to beat their toy war drums and cynically proclaim a nothing victory in cyberspace. Big deal. It's happened a million times. It's a zero in terms of what it actually does - and you can multiply zero by a million, and it's still zero.

 

I've only skimmed this thread so pardon me if this has been brought up.

I will say that I support the troops but I don't support the invasion of Iraq.

I support the troops and hope they all come back alive and uninjured. I support the troops and respect the fact they have volunteered to undertake this duty. The specific task they are for I might not agree with but I respect that they are for the most part brave and honorable people. I support the troops that I think they should be paid well, get good benefits and healthcare.

I support the troops because they are fellow Americans put in harms way and that ultimately its civillian leaders that ordered them there. If the leadership, they themselves might agree or disagree with that leadership but the decision to commit the country to war isn't theirs.

To those who say "you can't support the troops without supporting the war" I say your definition of support is very narrow.

 

Yes Iraq is just begining there's a whole lot of other countries out there we should be invading too.

 

It is very narrow. The support is often narrow enough to fit in a vehicle decal, e.g., or even worse, consist of a few lines of HTML.