"Support our troops." We hear this all the time. We see it on signs stuck in front yards, and on bumper stickers starting to fade from over a year's time in the sun.
But is it really that easy? Is it really free of any moral dilemma?
I have no desire to anger anyone here at the Kos community, and it is my fervent hope that I not do so. This diary, although lengthy, is more one of questions than answers.
Rather, I seek answers from this community. The enlisted men and women, the vets, and the never served alike. Do you support our troops?
Do I support our troops? Well, I couldn't feel more strongly that our fighting men and women should never be put in harm's way unless absolutely necessary. I couldn't feel more strongly that they shouldn't be put in harm's way by a "leadership" that's going to ignore seasoned military advice, fail to commit adequate forces to do the job right and keep the peace afterwards, and cut taxes for the wealthy while shorting the troops on necessary equipment.
I certainly don't want to see our reservists subjected to a stealth draft, as they are under our current "leadership." I want each and every individual in Iraq to return home: 1) Healthy, 2)Whole in mind, body ,and spirit, and 3) NOW. I want each of them to return to a good paying job, and quality lifetime healthcare.
So in those regards, I think I support the troops more than the typical Bushite seems to.
But here's where my moral dilemma kicks in.
I oppose this war. I have opposed it since before it began. I feel that it is wrong for several reasons.
From a purely pragmatic and amoral point of view, it has greatly endangered the United States, as well as the rest of the world. It has caused the US to divert necessary resources away from battling those who attacked this country, to those who haven't attacked this country, and posed no threat to do so.
It has destabilized an already tinderbox region. It has turned the entire moderate Islamic world against the United States. It has served as a greater recruiting tool for Al Queda than Bin Laden could have ever dreamed of.
It has bankrupted this nation. It has left us unable to protect our ports, our railways, our power plants.
Bush's preemptive attack against a nation that posed no threat to our country, or to any of its neighbors, has made my beloved country the largest rogue nation in the world. It has set a deadly precedent, recently embraced, rhetorically at least, by Vladamir Putin.
It has poisoned our relationship with our allies. It is a foreign policy blunder of historical proportions. Our nation will be paying for it for another fifty to a hundred years.
From a moral standpoint I personally feel that the war is wrong. It is groundless. It is a war of choice, a war of imperialism. It is immoral to me. I am not a pacifist. I fully recognize the necessity of a standing military, and that occasionally this military force must be used. And I do not necessarily object to our military force being used for human rights purposes. But that would be a very different war than Bush's war. A war in which Iraq's valuable resources weren't divvied up ahead of time between our President's corporate cronies. A war in which newspapers were not shut down. A war in which we didn't hurry to build a dozen permanent military bases.
I don't support Feith, Wolfowitz, Perle, etc. for advocating this war. I don't support Bush for ordering this war. I don't support Rumsfeld for bungling this war. I don't support Cheney for profiteering off this war.
So why should I support the soldiers who pick up arms to fight this war?
We all remember the VietNam war, or we've heard stories from then. How some people called returning soldiers "baby killers." We're all filled with fear because of this. We don't want to be those people. I don't want to be one of those people.
But do any of us believe that babies aren't being killed in Iraq? Is it not reasonable to assume that when large civilian enclaves are targeted for shelling that babies are going to be killed? Along with innocent adults?
Over ten thousand Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. Some were killed because they were trying to kill our troops. Some were killed by other Iraqis for cooperating with US forces. But unquestionably most were killed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Which is to say they were living in their homeland when a power-drunk cowboy and his neocon thugs decided to seize Iraq's petroleum and its strategically located real estate for their own evil ends.
I am eternally grateful to the men and women who choose to protect my fat ass. I realize that when they enlisted in the armed services they agreed to go where directed, and to do as directed. A military man or woman doesn't get to pick and choose which battle they fight.
But haven't we as a people, as a nation, as a species, long ago rejected "I was only following orders?"
In Israel, a score of that nation's top flyers has publicly refused to carry out their government's policies in the occupied area. They have been punished accordingly. They are extraordinary brave in my eyes. They are heroes to me.
I have encountered individuals about to ship out to Iraq. Have I called them "would be baby killers?" Of course not. Have I spit on them? Certainly not. I have wished them a safe and speedy return. And I have meant it from my heart.
But I have not thanked them for what they are doing. And I will not. What they are doing is wrong, in my eyes.
My hope is that each and every one of them has searched their own souls, and has made the decision that they feel is right for them. That's a bit of moral relativism that Bill Bennett probably wouldn't like. But it's the best I can do.
How about you?