Support the troops?
Tried to post this yesterday, but the Blogger wasn't cooperating...The entire notion of supporting the troops is one that has me confused a lot. I'm often accused of not supporting them because I don't and never have supported the "war" in Iraq. In my mind, those are two VERY different things. Frankly I'm not sure how wanting the troops to have never gone there and wanting them to come home as soon as possible is not the absolute best support for them possible. With my beliefs, we wouldn't have 2,400 dead soldiers and 18,000 injured ones - they would all still be alive and healthy. It may just be me, but I find a lot more support from people who want to keep me out of harm's way instead of from people who want to send me into a place where the chances of me being killed or hurt increase greatly. And that is all still not even considering the psychological and emotional issues these soldiers will get to deal with down the road when they have to face the reality of what they have been ordered to do over there.
But now we have a new kind of soldier to deal with and to figure out how to "support". What do we do with patriotic, committed, U.S. soldiers who find the Iraq conflict objectionable? There is one such soldier from a local military base here. Is he supported by being forced to do what he finds objectionable? Or does this mean we can finally abandon the feeble thoughts that the only thing soldiers want is to be told that everything they do is right?
posted by gurufrisbee @ 11:16 AM
