Back again with the second in my unpopular series - Don't Support The Troops. I'm starting to wonder if anyone really knows what it means anymore. Support The Troops. It seems to have no meaning at all other than shut up. Because nobody doesn't "support the troops" - not the Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, pro-war, anti-war or anyone else. When a phrase is used only to quell dissent and nobody is dissenting does it mean anything? Join me below the fold to find out why you (yes you) should not "support the troops".
The main reason not to support the troops is because until we stop there will always, constantly, be war. I'll be 45 years old in a few weeks and there has not been a day in my life that my country has not been at war. It makes me sick just to think about it. And whose fault is it? Both major parties have had control of the government, all three branches, at different times during my life but nothing has stopped the insanity or the bloodshed. Maybe the only way to stop the game is to take away the toys.
Make no mistake - war is nothing but a game to Bush and Cheney, and I honestly don't think it was much more to Clinton and Gore. These people will never fight and as long as the American people consistently "support the troops" they won't have to. There'll always be a fresh generation who believes that joining the military is an honorable and noble thing to do. It isn't. There may have been a time when the military provided a positive function in society but it doesn't now and it never will again.
The troops - like the police domestically - are treated in a monolithic way as heroes but they are no more similar to each other than plumbers or secretaries or presidents. And no better or worse. Some are good, some are bad, some are heroes, some are villians, some are saints and some are sadists.
You may have seen a recent poll wherein more than a third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information. Two-thirds of Marines said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian and less than half of soldiers and marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect. That's an awful lot of bad apples.
Maybe we should "Support The Good Troops" and "Weed Out The Bad Troops" or at least admit that there are bad troops. By treating them all as heroes I think we're supporting the bad ones and discouraging the good ones. This is the same situation we have with police departments and prisons all over this country.
I'm not writing to try to change anyone's opinion but to let other people, especially younger people who might be questioning blind loyalty to "the troops", to know that they're not alone.
The government will not end war. Only "We the People" can and we will have to do it one troop at a time.