I’ve never liked or bought the rhetoric of “supporting the troops.” I support people in the military insofar as I support the well-being of all people as a general rule. I also acknowledge that many of the troops are only in the military because it was one of the few feasible career choices that they are ever presented with, poor people and people of color especially. I also feel for those soldiers who are against the war but have no way out. However, I feel absolutely no obligation to support the troops in their professional capacity of killing people and further extending american dominance and destruction. That’s why the “support the troops: bring them home!” slogan doesn’t really speak to me; because, no, I don’t really support the troops. I am concerned about them as individuals, especially the ones who recognize that this war is wrong in every way, and I hope that they get home safe and alive and don’t continue to be fodder for the american government’s illegal wars. But that’s as far as my support goes.
Still, I can definitely go for “support the troops: bring them home” more than I can go for “support the troops, they’re working hard out there, so you’d better not talk bad about the war!” But here’s a better slogan: support the troops: listen to them. Because, according to a recent poll, the large majority of them think that they should get the hell out of Iraq, and soon.
Raising questions about Bush’s vow to keep troops in Iraq as long as they are needed, a Le Moyne College/Zogby poll showed 72 percent of U.S troops serving there think the United States should exit within the next year.
Nearly one in four said the troops should leave immediately.
One might hope that this would put and end to the whole Bush Co. line of “if you are against the war, then you must hate the soldiers!” I’m sure they won’t end that rhetoric, but hopefully now that stance will seem all the more ludicrious and hypocritical.
