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A Supporter’s Perspective
September 28, 2007
I know that there have been some tough arguments in the past here in our threads about whether you can support our soldiers on the battlefield without actually being pro-war. Many have come to accept this as reality including the President himself. However, opinions couldn’t possibly diverge into more directions than this debate has; but seriously, can one support the troops without being in support of this war? I definitely think so.Â
One great example of this would be professional wrestler, Mick Foley, a long time anti-war activist who supports the USO. I personally came to grips with the reality of this when I was about five years old, watching my parents support the troops but never being in favor of any war. I guess the “hippy summer of love generation†that they are a part of, has something to do with why they always oppose military action. Despite the fact that I often disagree with their political stance, this is something I have come to respect.
However, cases like the one with my parents, who actually support the troops while being anti-war and don’t just say they do to score political one-upsmanship, are very rare. As much as the slogan “Support the Warrior, not the war†has become a fad of the modern “Summer Of Love Crowdâ€, one would have to question if they really support the troops. Quiet frankly, I think despite being anti-war and a troop supporter myself, I honestly doubt the anti-war crowd that we see today standing outside of the White House holding picket signs, yelling at Generals who are giving assessments on how things are going on the ground with our men and women in uniform, are really supporting these brave Americans.
Can they really say that they support the troops, or do they only support the troops who come to join them on their side of the debate? Accusing our military of being the sole entity responsible for the way the world cannot get along with each other without drawing their guns and filling the carcasses of innocent bystanders with bullets from assault rifles, really does not sound like support to me. What if a soldier who comes back to the home life as a civilian and he gets told he’s been a shill for people like the Halliburton Corporation because he killed so that they could steal construction appropriations? Even if this soldier had seen the donated money we gave to Iraq for construction actually go to construction programs, can they really say they support him when they talk to him like that and choose to ignore him when he rebuttles?
If the soldiers who say that the United States is over there just to commit atrocities, get all the media attention, and the one’s who disagree with this particular soldier get completely ignored, is this supporting the soldiers, or just supporting the soldiers who take the same perspective as someone’s agenda? It sounds more like attacking the soldiers than supporting them to me. It also sounds more like denying them a voice in one of the most important debates of this crucial decade in our history as a country. When they are not allowed on news programs, to voice their opinions in contrast with the ones who accuse our soldiers of crimes against humanity, that isn’t supporting the troops.
If their families who may disagree with the anti-war crowd’s respective opinion get invited to shows like Montel just to get most of their most valid replies to anti-war folks present edited out of the final version aired, then that isn’t supporting the troops.
Can they really say they support our military when they falsely claim that the Iraqis hate our troops (not considering their take on the subject) when these Iraqis no matter how poor they are help these soldiers as much as they can? Often times our troops are invited to weddings, dinners, parties, for tea, and to be a part of classroom activities. Iraq is among the 11 countries that our troops operate in the Middle East whose people have been one of the reasons why we have killed or captured 87 percent of Al Qaeda’s fighters. They helped us catch them, by reporting to us if they felt something was out of line in their neighborhoods. Many times these facts were left unchecked by those opposed to this war.
I fully understand that they have rights to express the way they feel. However, there is such thing as crossing the line and asserting one’s freedom to such an extent that it violates the rights of those who disagree is crossing the line. Not only do the soldiers that the anti-war crowd agrees with get all the money, spotlight, and attention, but their colleagues who disagree with them get shoved back into the darkness, a prime example of a violation of the rights of your opposition. What about the fact that anti-war special interest groups like CodePink take their politics to the extreme of hurting these soldiers who disagree with them?
CodePink’s leader and founder(I guess) Jodie Evans, admitted that she and her group supported the insurgents and Al Qaeda in Iraq in launching their attacks. Moreover, they gave material support to terror organizations in Fallujah, Iraq. Literally, giving about 600,000 dollars to insurgents. I wonder if any of them know that while U.S. troops and their allies are fighting terror organizations, rebuilding the country, trying to deliver humanitarian supplies, and trying to sustain the peace, that these insurgents are putting bombs in schools, buying guns from the black market, using innocent people as sheilds, and probably shooting propelled explosives at market places. I guess this is the new way to support our brave soldiers?
Okay, let me reiterate what I had said earlier. You can support the men and women in uniform and be anti-war. Some of the friends that CJ made while being at the Gathering Of Eagles counter protest I’m sure were not in favor of the war. Some of them were in fact not sure if we should have gone there in the beginning, despite thinking we ought to finish this fight for the sake of Iraq’s future. However, I strongly doubt that all the people who are anti-war really supported our soldiers despite the fact that they consistently repeat themselves on this topic.
The fact that the modern anti-war crowd supports the enemy with cash, and ignores the soldiers who disagree with them, validate my suspicions. I wouldn’t feel supported if I had come back from Iraq and stood next to my buddy’s bed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and saw them give their phony support with Sunday vigils while telling me what the people I had associated with during deployment think about me, only to be shut down when it was my turn to talk just for disagreeing with them. I would also feel like I wasn’t supported by these people when they paid for the bombs that injured my friends Iraqi and American alike.
I am sorry, but we’ll just have to leave this debate at this. We agree to disagree, there is no such thing as victory in war and even if we win, veterans will still miss the men they fought side by side with, they will weep for the dead, they will miss the Iraqis that died because they had failed to save them, and everyone from there-on will experience loss because that’s war. However, we are “pushed to the wall†as Jodie Evans puts it to define victory. Because the anti-war crowd demands it even when they aren’t willing to contribute to their end of the haul. Either way, don’t equate yourself to be true supporters of our men and women in uniform under the circumstances I had presented in this post, because they contradict the bullshit your bullshit artists masks themselves with. Although, I wouldn’t blame you for that last statement regarding masking yoursleves, I think it would be hard to look at myself too if I was one of you!
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