SUPPORT THE TROOPS - What Does That Mean To You ??

Well, I definitely support the troops! I email them. I write them. I spend care packages to them. I founded a network of others that work special projects each week for the troops. We send care packages. Right now, we are involved in starting up a new program that focuses on supporting the families of the troops.

I'm doing everything I can think of to support the troops. They need to know we care about them.

I definitely believe you do that Momma!! I also think you're one of the few!!

Anon

Well Anon, perhaps your thread here will change that? One does not have to support the war to support the troops.

I hate the war. What matters is that our troops are there and they need us. Plain as day.

I support the troops and do none of those things you say.

I don't consider my opinions lipservice.

Osso,

That's awesome. So many don't understand how you can support the troops with your opinions. Awesome.

My Dearest Osso,

It is considered such a horrible sin NOT to "SUPPORT THE TROOPS", and NOT to "SUPPORT THE WAR", that I am trying to get some kind of idea of what people think "SUPPORTING THE TROOPS" really is.

It seems that many of our rightwing brethern here think that merely condemning us "liberals", like here on this board, is indeed "SUPPORTING THE TROOPS".

Anon

I think expressing the belief that the more troops that get killed the better, certainly does NOT quallify as "supporting the troops."

But that's just my opinion.

Good grief, I am not for one more person being hurt. (Spitting in the wind, I know.)

I see I walked into a loaded conversation chamber.

Anon, I wish you wouldn't use Roger's old and rather beloved Avatar. It is obfuscational.

I gather that was a loaded gun, Ticom', re more troops killed the better, from another argument. I'll leave you both to it.

I actually asked Roger's permission to use this, as he was now using the other avatar. Does it really bother you that much??

Anon

OK Osso, alothough I did get Rogers permission to use it, since it bothers you ... I have changed back to my previous avatar.

Anon

THE NEXT QUESTION I HAVE IN THIS TOPIC, WHICH IS JUST AN EXTENSION OF THE TOPIC IS ...

IS "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" REALLY JUST CODE FOR "SUPPORT THE WAR"??

Is this really nothing more than a catch phrase to make us feel guilty about the troops? This has it's roots dating back to the returning VietNam War Vets. We were treated like pariahs when we came back. It took years for the populace to understand how cruel and unfair this was. These were kids who were drafted out of their lives and forced to go out to a war which was like this one. A war that the country was lied into by the greedy and venal. Sometimes, nothing changes, even when you think it has. I thought we had learned our lessons, I thought we had changed, I thought we had made progress. Turns out, we're even more ignorant than we were before. We are so easily manipulated now that it makes me shudder that we are so naive! We have lost out ability to think things out and search for the truth.

So, here is the extended thought ... Doesn't "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" Really mean "SUPPORT THE WAR"? It just does it in such a way that you can't and don't dare say NO! If you say NO, you're endangering the troops by not giving them what they need to fight the war. By"SUPPORTING THE TROOPS", you become a willing supporter of the war whether you do or not, whether you like it or not!!

I'm going to start giving some examples of how this has been used by our government ... against us. For now though, this is just there as food for thought.

Anon

Here's what SOME soldiers need.



http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71997

I'll look at these two subjects in different ways. I support the people from the US who are over there. I don't support our/their being there in the first place. But given they are there, I wish them home safe. I also support, not the enemy exactly, but the people of Iraq, such as they are, in all their ways. It is, after all, their country.

So, in my case, you could say support the troops meets with non support for any more aggression on our part.

I deeply support our soldiers.. I don't support our command structure at this moment in time, to put it mildly.

Yes it has that tacit implication.

After all the phrase is not "save our troops".

Well, just to riff, I'd like it if our soldiers had well clad vehicles and bodies.. but more if they plain old talked with the people they are belligerantly guarding. Yes, I know the guarding is warranted.

I only wish that some energy went to communication instead of war and war and war. Such an incredible waste.

Well, as I've heard it, the troops have been short supplied. I don't care about the implications of my concern, I'd like the combatants of the US to be safe and well.

I'd like their command structure to desist, but at this point I can see that would be hard to finesse. I'd like all the people of Iraq to be safe and well too and see that as being difficult, given the mess.

My view of our role in the mess is largely negative.

The only way to support the troops in Iraq is to oppose the war in Iraq.

Of course you also want the US to lose the war in Iraq and think you're a patriot for doing so.

Opposing is different to losing, no?