Vets See Protests as Attack on Policy, Not on Troops

This post should be a sticky. Why are conservatives telling the troops that more than half the country who are against the war in Iraq don't support them, when it isn't true?

Do you conservatives WANT the troops to believe they aren't supported? Is that supportive of the troops?

Pro Iraq war = Want the troops in Iraq and harms way for non-necessary military action, want the troops to believe that people aren't supporting them even though it isn't true.


Anti Iraq war = Want the troops only used when it is absolutely necessary protecting more of their lives, support the troops, and don't question the support of pro Iraq war supporters even though they disagree thus allowing the troops to feel supported from both ends.

Of course the Pro Iraq side I just posted is a good 50% pure spin on what they think. I was just doing it to try it out. It has been done to me and others on the anti-war side I wanted to see what it felt like.

 

Because that's the only argument they have left to cling too.

The "clap louder" crowd is in free fall.

 

Continuously trumpeting the troops failures and deaths hurts morale. Being anti-war is one thing, but even if you're anti-war you don't have to hurriedly post negative news of what's going on in Iraq. You don't have to rush to post allegations of accused (by low-life terrorists trained to claim torture...) torture instead of posting how schools and electricity are being set up. How would you like it if people proclaimed only your failures at work, conveniently omitting the good things you do? I'd feel like you weren't on my side, that's for sure. This article is just talking about being anti-war and having rallies. That's fine. Just focus on some positive news from time to time instead of all negative, all the time.

 

I agree with you, however, your ilk seems to believe that the media reporting on the troops deaths and publishing photographs of caskets coming back from the war is "trumpeting" rather than "reporting", and therein lies the rub.

bigtexxx, precisely when did the United States repeal the First Amendment of the Constitution? I must have missed that minor news item.

 

The first amendment has not been repealed. You can legally say what you want, but whether it undermines our war effort and/or hurts troops’ morale is another story.

 

Freedom of speech has never undermined the war effort or hurt the troops morale in any war the United States has ever been engaged.

Bad policy has.

 

What hurts the troops morale is being told they aren't supported by alrge numbers of people who actually do support them and oppose the policy. How would you feel if someone who was sending unecessarily into harms way kept telling you that everyone wasn't on your side, and didn't believe in the job you were doing, or think you were doing anything worthwhile?

As this article shows, many are able to see that support for the troops is very different than support for bad policy that is failing.

 

In other words, don't worry be happy. I guess we should just make the news the feel good hour. No more stories about poverty, no more stories about drugs, no more stories about rape or murder and absolutely no stories that the government might have ever done anything wrong.

 

Good article, I have bought more than a couple of vets a beer at MMP and they DO know that not everyone supports policy but we all want our soldiers home safe.

 

at least the people whos opinion actually matter (soldiers) know that supporting troops and policymakers dont go hand-in-hand.


"You can support the troops but not the president"

-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)


"My job as majority leader is be supportive of our troops, try to have input as decisions are made and to look at those decisions after they're made ... not to march in lock step with everything the president decides to do."

-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

 

The first two quotes above are how alot of average people who are against the war really feel...which must be a great shock to the conservs like Mr Texxx who really hate to hear that their past statements about libs are a bunch of hoowee


and the last quote from a actual soldier says alot more about how "damaging to morale" the anti war feelings of the majority of the country really are.

but Im sure that will be ignored and blowoff as "not indicitive of how the troops really feel"

If it doesnt jibe with your viewpoint...it *must not* be true.

 

I don't think thats accurate. Its more STRATEGIC failures and POLICY blunders...

Continuing to peddle lies hurts troop morale..

 

So you're saying that our troops are too dumb to realize the difference between personal attacks on their actions and critical opinions on the policies of the president?

OUCH

 

What hurts the troops the most is when the administration artificially thinks there is support for a war effort that is not there, and thus feels it acceptable to continue to make bad decision after bad decision, putting troops in an even worse position then before.

You, by your unwillingness to voice any criticism (which I do believe you have), contribute to that. For example, had more people voiced opposition from day #1, our troops might be in much better shape today than they are. Two years from now, the same might be said of voicing dissent today.

 

So if a mother dislikes her daughter's boyfriend and tells her so, does that mean the mother doesn't love her daughter? I mean c'mon, the mother should get on board with the daughter's objectives!

Give me a break!

 

Just historically incorrect and I can't believe you'd even say that. Do you think the opponents in any war we've been in live inside a box? Ho seriously considered halting the war in Vietnam but said the deciding factor was the domestic situation in the US. Waning support at home absolutely a factor that should be looked at in that light, and isn't by the left. So worried about censorship and the first amendment that you forget the rest of the package. Look at Al Queda - Osama made the decision to confront the US when he saw that a relatively small amount of casualties in Somalia was enough to get us to withdraw. If the criticism of those who say 'Bush personally has done a poor job - but we need to stay the course in Iraq' were actually separated out from those like glynch - then maybe there wouldn't be an effect. Instead its all lumped together as Bush/Iraq/Unpopular/Gettingmoreso. That is something one should consider because its not just a rhetorical strawman from the Right. Saying 'bad policy' has had bad effects is like saying 'bad decisions.'

 

Proof please. Thanks.

OK, I'll bite.

Bad Decisions

Now what?

 

You're great at coming up with absurd examples that don't have anything to do with what I said.

A better analogy would be if a mother continually highlighted the daughter's failures in life and never brought up her successes. Then I would determine that the mother is harming the daughter.