Hello Everyone!
Everyone who has lived in the United States since Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan and who has even considered opposing any of the above has been asked the following question, "But you do support the troops, don't you? Don't you?"
In short it's a very manipulative way of dodging the issue. In a post-Vietnam America the question has the implied connotation of supporting the war, or at least not going out of one's way to make anti-war views known.
The common response to this is "Well can't one support the troops and be against the war?", and in fact this has been the anti-war movement's main response.
But the truth is that support is always to some extent in the eyes of the receiver. You can control your own intentions to someone else. But you can't control whether another will see your actions as supportive.
And the reality with a war like Iraq, is that if you oppose the war many of the troops will agree with you and even join you when they get home. Others might see you as an unfortunate side effect of the Bill of Rights, and others might view you as traitors. You may not have the benefit of knowing how many of the troops support the war and how many oppose it. But it is pretty certain that silence will not always put you in the good with the troops either. Some Vietnam veterans-even some who favored the war-had more of a problem with people who were sort of indifferent and going on with their lives as though nothing was happening than they had with the protesters.
If you decide to openly support the war anti-war vets may dislike that. Even pro-war vets may take a dim view of those who support the war but don't sign up to go if they are able to.
There's no way around it. You have to make a decision with no guarantee of what anyone will think about you.
In the end the only real choice most of us have about these things is to do what is right. To make the best decision one can about what is right and make the best of it from there on out.
But while you cannot control who will or won't see your actions as supportive. You can support what you think will save lives. And not just American lives.
Of course, many people would say that it is support the troops to promote things like healthcare for injured veterans and help for those with PTSD. But there are more old fashioned terms for that. Where I come from we called that "humane" or simply "morally right". Even those of us who grew up when the Dolchstosslegende had fully penetrated American culture probably heard those concepts somewhere.
And doing those things doesn't guarantee that an anti-war protester will be seen as supporting the troops by all who witness it. Anyone who knows how the right can spin things these days should know better. And although nowadays Senator James Webb is making a name for himself as a veteran's advocate, it should not be forgotten that once upon a time he considered the early movement to acknowledge the harm done by Agent Orange, as a way to "steal the valor" of Vietnam Vets by portraying them as victims. (See books "Long Time Passing" by Myra MacPherson and "Home to War" by Gerard Nicosia.)
In fact, nothing anyone does can guarantee some sort of boy scout badge, or clean record where one will be seen as "supporting the troops". After all, blaming the citizenry at large if the war went badly was a part of the right's game-plan from the very beginning of the war.
When the right asks you to "support the troops" what they are really doing is holding the troops hostage to their cynical plans.
What they want from you is silence. And by being silent, you are playing right into their their plan to blame you if the war goes badly. If you openly oppose the war, the accusations of being "unpatriotic" or "not supporting the troops" are inevitable. But you will never be in a position of saying, "No I didn't get involved with the anti-war movement. I didn't say anything. I was afraid it would demoralize the troops. But I did have my doubts about the Iraq War.......Honest!! I'm not lying about that part!"
However if you decide to remain silent as a way of supporting the troops, those who ardently supported that war will also blame the mess that Iraq has become on you for not doing enough to support the troops on the homefront. As the rightwing blamed the German people as a whole for losing WWI, thanks to inadequate homefront support. Even if the Bush administration only asked you to go shopping at the time. Or maybe you couldn't afford to do much shopping. Whatever. If you didn't speak out during the war, people will tell you for the rest of your life, fairly or not, that by silence you supported the war. And that by inadequate, support for the troops you helped lose it.
It may sound like a no-win situation, but I assure you it isn't. We can beat that fatal logic, or illogic as it were, by not letting such narratives prevail.
If you remained silent, apolitical, and passive throughout the Bush years, it is NOT to late to speak out about the war now. Even if you voted for President Obama you can still criticize him on Iraq and Afghanistan. It is never too late to speak out. But it would be much better if you start before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over. Because if you wait until the war is over, you will never be able to change the fact that you were silent during the war.
If you are already involved with the anti-war movement, or have been involved with the anti-war movement, it's time to stop letting the right control the conversation. Instead of "Support the Troops, Bring them Home" as the only *politically correct* slogan, let's talk about saving human lives. Because you can scarcely go wrong with that.
And when the wars are finally over sooner or later, (And I hope for sooner, but fear later) don't retreat from politics like so many people did after Vietnam. Of course, we all have times in our lives where we have more or less to give to political causes. But the political lull of the 70's and 80's was dangerous. It was what allowed the right to take control of the conversation in the first place.
We can't let it happen again. And the only way not to let it, is to speak against it.
Say Goodnight Readers!
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