I support the troops, but…
But nothing…you don’t support the troops.
How can allegedly educated people be so bloody naïve? Have you no understanding what showing up for anti-war protests and pushing for a unilateral and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq is doing to the troops that you claim to support? You are giving the enemy a reason to keep fighting. By giving the enemy encouragement, you are contributing to casualties of the very troops you allegedly support.
Do you not understand that in this day and age the enemy browses the Internet, watches CNN and follows every nuance of Western pacifism? What you clearly do not understand is that war is won in the will. If you truly cared about the troops, you‘d take a look at what the enemy is saying on their web sites. Every time you protest, they rejoice and believe that their victory is that much nearer. In your vocal opposition to the war, they recognize that you haven’t the stomach to see the fight through. All they have to do is hang on until you stupidly elect a candidate who claims that he will "end the war" by withdrawing our troops no matter what the conditions are on the ground.
In 2004, just prior to the Spanish elections, they blew up the Madrid train station killing 191 people. Spain did exactly what the terrorists wanted, they voted in a government that immediately withdrew their troops from Iraq. Had the Spaniards had intestinal fortitude, they would have increased their troop strength and sworn to battle on no matter what. The terrorists would have been taken aback at the strength of will a Western country was showing. Things might have been much different.
Just before General Petraeus testified before Congress, there was an up-tick in violence, including the largest single terrorist attack of the war. Over 500 Iraqi civilians were killed and 1,500 wounded. Any bets on whether the attack was planned with our politics in mind? Any bets on what is going to happen come say, September and October?
Here is the road we are headed down thanks to the weak-willed who say they “support the troops”, but not the war. Already two of the top leaders of Hamas (Ahmed Yousef and Khaled Meshal) have “endorsed” Obama. Gleb Pavlovsky, a key advisor to Vladimir Putin and his hand-picked puppet Dmitri Medvedev has “endorsed” Obama. Hugo Chavez, while not directly endorsing Obama, has attacked McCain. The Iranian state television has also been vigorously attacking McCain as has the North Korean state-run newspaper Rodong Sinnmun.
In 2004, a weekend before the Presidential Election, Osama bin Laden made a television appearance in a naked attempt to influence the election. What all these instances have in common is that they believe that the Democrats will be weaker and more willing to avoid conflict at any price. Obama is making that case with his declaration to cut and run no matter what the circumstances on the ground are.
So the next time you attend a peace rally and claim to support the troops but…
But nothing! SHUT UP! You do NOT support the troops because you are giving the enemy hope and reason to keep fighting. YOU are showing the enemy that we do not have the will to win. So when there is an up-tick in violence prior to the 2008 elections, keep in mind that your failure to truly support the troops is responsible. The enemy is certain that you will show your gutless stripes and elect someone who will give them the victory you are denying your own troops.
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9 comments:
That was a very interesting and thought provoking read. Excellent. Never too old to learn. It reminds me of the time in the 70's when a school was taken by some Dutch Molukken and the journalists were not informed of anything because the people inside the school would watch everything on tv. Excellent
I've had this discussion with my oldest son many times. He states the very same you do when I say I do not support our current administration. He feels I am not supporting our troops.
I can support our troops and not support their CIC. Do I think going in to Iraq was right? No, and I think it would take a lot to convince me otherwise.
Feel free to ignore this question if you wish: Why do you think Iraq was invaded and not Saudi Arabia? Why were they not targets when the Bank of Dubai is where the money came from for the 9/11 attacks? (And you can find that information on the FBI website.) The terrorists were mostly Saudi nationals and there were a couple of Egyptians too.
That is my hang up. We went in to Iraq believing they had WMD (which were never there) and yet we ignored what was right in front of us all along.
So, I took the gloves off. :)
Feel free to stop by my blog again.
I've been neglecting this blog of late with my deployment to Afghanistan.
Middle -- thanks for stopping by. One of my biggest gripes is with the media. They have a set world view (like most of us) and then spin the facts to present their world view. The difference between ordinary people and the media is that the media is in a position to affect policy.
Pretzel,
Thanks for stopping by...though I'm surprised you chose this blog instead of my other one.
Supporting the administration is an entirely different matter than supporting the troops. However, the manner in which people protest the war is at issue and how such protests actually contribute to prolonging the conflict.
You might as well ask why we didn't bomb Kansas after the Oklahoma City bombing. But, I concur that Saddam's terror-links were tenuous.
That the 9/11 terrorists came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt does not mean that those governments were complicit. Most of the 9/11 terrorists had not been in their home countries in many years.
We went in to Iraq believing they had WMD (which were never there) and yet we ignored what was right in front of us all along.
Never were there? Tell that to the Iraqi Kurds and Shiites. The shelf may have been empty when we got there, but that does not mean they were never there. We are still finding huge caches of weapons buried all over the desert...along with new mass graves. Since I originally wrote the piece about the war being worth it, an additional 56 mass graves have been uncovered.
At the time the war started, nearly 80% of Americans supported it. That was the time to put the brakes on, if there were reservations. But every intelligence service in the world at that time believed the WMD were there. Even Bill Clinton has agreed on that point. Saddam's intransigence in the months leading up to the war reinforced that view.
Arguing now, in perfect 20-20 hindsight, that we should not have invaded Iraq because we didn't find WMD is a bit like stepping off a cliff and deciding that it wasn't a good idea.
My point of view is that of someone who has been in Iraq on multiple deployments. I am currently in Afghanistan. I can tell you that the press is not telling the truth about either theater and they are every bit as guilty of "spin" as is the administration.
Finally, I would ask you, why is it that the Army's combat units have reenlistment rates running at 120% if what the press tells you is true? The guys actually out on patrol are seeing a different Iraq than what the press is showing you folks back home.
The press is not what I read - well I do read it but I believe it about as much as I believe a 30 year old telling me they've never thought about sex - and the spin they put on *everything* is to sell, sell, sell. It's what writers do - the better the story the bigger the sale. (And I don't have to tell you that. ;) )
Being a mother of four males makes me want to scream in frustration because *if* a draft starts then my children aren't given a choice. That is what infuriates me. I know...borrowing trouble and all that...but I worry. It scares me. I think about the men and women over there - even as I type this - in harm's way and my gut reaction is to want them all to come back home. Here. Safe. And home.
It's hard to understand, I know, but it's how I feel and I can't help how I feel. I hate war, I hate fighting, and I hate bloodshed of any kind. (Hence the reason I am anti - DP.)
I am a liberal but not so blinded by my party that I can't see that sometimes it is necessary to wage war against another country. I know it is. My logical side understands it - it's my mommy side that doesn't.
I visited your other blog - I was interrupted by a child before I could comment. :)
Pretzel,
Actually, I rather suspected the mommy bias. ;)
If a draft starts, don't blame the military. The military does not want a draft! Short of WWIII we don't need a draft. A draft would dilute the high quality we currently have.
The administration contributed to prolonging the war too, by making some really dumb decisions after the war started. Like "firing" the entire Iraqi Army and police force. We could have quadrupled all their salaries at less cost than the war has become.
By "firing" them, we put over a million armed men on the street with no means to support their families and we made them lose face by firing them. Gee, I wonder why they started shooting at us?
Originally, several Iraqi units offered to help restore order when things got chaotic with the looting. We told them, "no thanks".
And that is just ONE of the administration screw-ups...beyond not having a plan for when Baghdad fell.
Hey, J.L., I just wanted to come back and thank you - on this day - for all that you do to fight for our country. I want to thank you for putting your life on the line. I hope you have a safe and happy fourth.
preTzel
preTzel,
Thank you so much for the kind wishes. We had "fireworks" in the mountains around Kabul, but the city itself was pretty quiet yesterday. It was a bad day for some Pakistani Taliban...or so I've heard from our Afghan driver.
You know I couldn't leave this one alone. And, you know I do support the troops, am not a peace protester, and do not believe we should unilaterally pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. You know I'm forced to choose between my social issues and world issues in this election.
But for Freedom of Speech to fail, or even be put on hold, because of the enemy? That means THEY'VE won sacred ground--ground that in this day and age may never be recovered. I can see the irony in what you're saying--supporting the troops vs peace protesters, and frankly I've always thought "supporting the troops" is lipservice anyway, no matter who says it. But I could never promote any viewpoint that advocates downplaying any kind of protest. (This coming from a person who had abortion protesters--and murdered doctors--at the end of my block for literally years in Wichita.)
At some point, we have to stand up for our own nation in our own way, uncompromising in our ideals and ways. If a peace protest will tighten the enemy's resolve--and THEY don't see the irony in that-- then too fucking bad, it's their funeral.
Sex,
With Freedom, comes responsibility the other half of our rights that is implied, but which no one seems to recognize anymore.
Unfortunately this country has established a track record that if things get dicey, we lose our nerve.
Yes, the irony is that the war was actually won in Vietnam and we caved.
We ran away from Somalia.
Obama keeps clucking about running away from Iraq even with victory looming.
Our national reactions to adversity have created the expectation in the eyes of our enemies that our politicians can't handle the heat if enough people are protesting.
By demonstrating lack of national will, we prolong the fight. This in turn results in more deaths for everyone, including the bad guys and civilians.
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