All this carefully calculated discussion of Zarqawi's death is revealing just what a linguistic stranglehold the Right has over us right now. It's great that a scumbag like that is dead, lord knows he deserves to rot in hell, but do we have to pour it on extra thick just to satisfy the Right's bloodlust? Just to prove that We Support the Troops too? I'm sick of hedging every argument through their prism that being liberal means being anti-American. It's a semantic albatross. The only way to get it from around our necks is to rip the sucker off, not to keep petting it and hope that it will fly away and leave us one day.
As far as wishing the soldiers a safe return, who the hell doesn't want that? But when it comes to the day-to-day operations of occupation I can't condone what's going on over there and I won't pretend I do.
If you have the stomach for it dip down below for more.
My hero is Franklin D Roosevelt. Not just for getting us out of the depression and courageously confronting Japan and Germany in WW2, but he is my idol for one simple statement: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." To me this is the essence of being a liberal -- addressing the problems of the day with a can-do attitude, a sense that we can overcome, we can achieve, and we can create a better society.
In other words: we have ideals.
On the contrary, conservatives like to lecture young idealists and tell us that when we grow older we'll learn that our foolish ideals are impractical and impossible and that providing for the self is the only true aim of society. They claim that you can only help others by leaving them on their own to sink or swim, for instance they blame the victims for Katrina instead of their own incompetent responses.
Conservatives are afraid of everything, including their big, white, fatcat shadows. Let's go down the list: Arabs, Homosexuals, Taxes, Drugs, Popular Culture, Immigrants, Sexual liberation, but most of all CHANGE. Fear guides their every action and they use it to scare votes out of similarly simpleminded Americans. It's their bread and butter. "Gay marriage will destroy traditional marriage." "Democrats will raise taxes and send you to the poorhouse." "We need to bomb the Middle East or else we'll be under Islamic rule in a matter of weeks." Don't let them fool you. We live in a country that built the modern world, let's not then shut it out and revert to the stone ages (i.e.: 1950)
So this is my plea to fellow liberals. We should not fear conservatives. It's time to take a stand and grow a pair. Fuck it! I'll say it! I don't support the troops. Not the ones in Haditha. Not the ones in Guantanamo. And definitely not the ones at the Pentagon. To the grunts on the ground I hope you return safely and soon but that doesn't mean I approve of what you're doing there. I'm sorry you're being ordered to kill and create chaos; I know it's not your fault, but regardless, I don't support it.
We don't need armies to get terrorist. We need a few highly specialized, undercover Special Forces to do the job. Armies are for invasions and occupations. And that I don't support. Anytime a liberal goes out of his way to disclaim that they support the troops it plays to the conservatives' advantage. It looks like we're hiding something. It all started with Vietnam. Conservatives desperately want to blame us for that catastrophe and the "you don't support the troops" line was their rallying cry for the failures of Vietnam. They preemptively applied it to this war. Makes sense: preemptive wars require preemptive bullshit.
So I repeat: Do Not Fear Conservatives. Behind the bellicose and the raving lunacy is nothing but a bundle of paranoia controlling their thoughts and actions. This is what I would say next time you encounter an argument with a wingnut. "I don't support the war therefore, logically, I don't support what the troops are doing over there. I want them home now so they can raise their families like they should be doing instead of doing the Bush family's dirty work. And if you support them, why aren't you there helping out?" It's time we stopped using their little coded phrases. Look them in the eye and ask them "do you support torture? Illegal invasions? Massacres?" Be bold, speak the truth, and never back down. Be proud of being a liberal and proud of your convictions. If you don't support the war then leading off every argument with I support the troops BUT... won't win the conservative's hearts and minds anyway (if they had them in the first place), it just makes you look wishy-washy and weak, and reaffirms in their minds that you're hiding something.
Chickenhawks get no love from me. Fuck em. I don't feel the need to placate them with a hollow statement like I support the troops.
I'll tell you what I support. I SUPPORT PEACE, JUSTICE, AND EQUALITY. I SUPPORT BRINGING THE TROOPS HOME. I SUPPORT IMPEACHEMENT.
Remember: "The only thing you have to fear is fear itself."