Red, White, and Blue Light Special

What does it mean to “support our troops”?

• Does it mean that we accept every war without question? I would hope not, because that bumper sticker would read, “slaughter our troops", or “screw our troops”, or maybe just “use our troops”.  

• Does it mean that when they come home from whatever conflict they sacrificed through service to our nation, that they will be cared for by the nation who put them in harm's way? One would hope so, but a cursory review of American history doesn't support this expectation. We do not always support our troops when they come marching home. Sometimes we treat them rather poorly.

• Does it mean that we will exhaust every other conceivable option before we put their lives at risk? No, our leaders often incite us to dance to the rhythm of their war drums based on lies and contorted half truths, but we dance all the same. 

• Does supporting our troops mean that in those very few exceptional cases when armed conflict is absolutely necessary that we will ensure that they have the best training, equipment, and standard of living to complete their mission? Here we do support our troops fairly well, but we could always do better especially when it comes to financially compensating them for their commitment. Shouldn't an E-1 make as much as the person who types up the lunch menu at General Dynamics or drives the on-campus bus at Raytheon? Shouldn't they?

• Does it mean that when we do send them into combat we will provide them with clearly defined and realistic victory conditions to attain which will result in most, if not all, of them returning to their loved ones back home? I believe this is one of the most important ways we can demonstrate support for our troops and I believe this is where support for our troops is abysmal. When conflicts drag on for years and then into decades, we are doing a piss poor (pardon my military vernacular) job of supporting our troops. We might as well have them standing in a parking lot at parade rest as we walk past the dress right dressed soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and crack each one between their eyes with a ball peen hammer. Not hard enough to kill or cripple them, but just hard enough to make them really hurt, and eventually resent us for the way we “support” them. Well, if we draw blood, I suppose  there are always plenty of bumper stickers floating around to bind their wounds, their minds, their families, and their broken lives.

• Or does it mean we were willing to spend $2.75 once on the cheapest form of patriotic fervor money can buy?

Supporting Endless War is not Supporting our Troops, 
it's Abandoning Them.