(NOTE: I wrote this yesterday afternoon, but couldn't post it as I had posted the speech one and deleted it. It's important to frame this issue in our terms, so here it is.)
I put up Obama's latest speech on ending our war in Iraq and rebuilding America's standing in the world, and then realized that it was copyrighted. So if you want to read it you will have to go Obama's web site.
So I will write up a related diary, one that demonstrates a way we can take back the phrase "Support Our Troops" when it is hurled at us by chickenhawks. It comes from a great panel I listened to on LinkTV over the weekend, from a Professor of Psychology named Drew Westen.
I write this as I listen to Cheney's August, 2002 speech on why we should go to war with Iraq on CSPAN playing in the background. Words of deceit from someone who never had the courage to go to war himself. Let me tell you how we can take his words and use them against him and his ilk over the fold.
First, a little video, words of loss and hope, words from one of those soldiers Mr. Cheney sent to Iraq who didn't come home. His last letter home, to be opened if he never came back. Think about this as you read Dr. Westen's words on "Support Our Troops" below.
Dr. Westen talks about neural networks of association that align words with other associated words. About how physical pathways in our brains lead us to associate themes and subjects, and how these can be manipulated. He showed the famous Reagan ad referred to as "Morning In America", showing us that it actually used the words "It's Morning Again In America". That his four years in office had restored America and he should be given another term. Dr. Westen believes this ad to be a perfect example of activating association networks, one of the best political ads ever made.
He then gave a brilliant short speech, using words and associations that will enable us to take back the slogan "Support Our Troops", turning it into an attack on those that would keep us in Iraq. Remember, or even better play the video above while you read the words below. They are so brilliant that I rewound the Tivo and copied them down verbatim:
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
Don't make their families take up a collection for their body armor.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
Armor their Humvees so they don't lose their lives and limbs when they don't need to.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
Don't send them into someone else's civil war.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
Don't send them to war unless you would send your own children.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
When they come home damaged, when they come home with their bodies frayed from that war, don't you dare warehouse them with cockroaches at Walter Reed Hospital.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
When they come back to the shores that they will never see again, having given their life for this country, don't wisk their bodies in in the middle of the night because it's good for PR for people not to see their bodies. You proudly display their flag-draped coffins like every American president has done in American history before you.
Mr. President, you want to know what it means to support our troops?
Don't you ever, ever write letters to their parents, to their spouses, to their children when they've lost their lives for this country with a mechanical pen. You write it with your own hand, so you feel what it means when they've lost their lives for this country.
And you really want to know what it means to support our troops?
Bring them home.
President Obama will, at a one to two brigades per month pace.
And in one of those moments of perfect timing, just as I post this CSPAN is showing President Bush speaking to the troops on that dark day five years ago when we invaded an innocent country.
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