Friday, March 30, 2007

Troops, Yes. War, No.

Plainly put: Being against the war in Iraq does not mean you're against the troops. A Congress trying to end a war and bring troops home is not anti-soldier. It's apples and oranges. We're into a fourth year of the Iraq War, and a large number of Americans have never supported it. Yet in the last four years I have not heard, even once, someone say something insulting or disparaging about an American soldier fighting overseas. They are treated as heroes who make the ultimate sacrifice so people like me can write this post. I have a feeling there are lots of people in this country who feel the war in Iraq was a mistake - but because they don't want to appear to be on the side of an anti-war movement that they consider to be unpatriotic or lefty, the easy out is, "I support the troops".
Everybody supports the troops. The question is not about the troops. It's about the war. You're either for it, or against it, and every American should say so and why (I believe it was a mistake from the start because it's hard to help people who hate you).

I have never been in combat. I can't pretend to know what it's like. But I feel I can make this guess - I don't think a soldier on the streets of Baghdad is thinking, "I hope people at home are supporting me." More accurately he's thinking, "People at home have no idea what's going on here, and I just want to get out alive."

We will see the White House painting the Congress as anti-troop often in the coming weeks as the debate over a pull-out heats up. Don't believe it. Republican or Democrat. Government or Citizen. Americans respect their soldiers. The argument is about the war.
For the record: I support doctors, but I'm aginst cancer.