Let's Show The Righties How To REALLY Support The Troops

[The Donkey]

If you’ve ever criticized the war in Iraq as a farce, I’m sure that you’ve been rebuked with the old “9/11” chestnut from some blind follower of all things GOP. Of course, there’s a vast paper trail in existence that leads you to a mountain of evidence that shows that the Iraq invasion had absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on our country. If you ask some people, you’d almost be convinced that Uday and Qusay Hussein (Saddam’s sons) were the actual pilots of those planes that hit the World Trade Center towers that day.

Of course, anyone who’s read a newspaper not named The Weekly World News knows that Al-Qaeda and Hussein were not allied in anything. We also know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Finally, we now know that the Bush Administration planned in advance to invade Iraq regardless of this fact.

Normally, you’d think that pointing out these truths to a supporter of the president would result in an open-mouthed checkmate. However, there’s often an argument raised at this point that is the verbal representation of a desperation swing of a boxer about to go down for the count. It’s usually at this point that you’ll hear something along the lines of “Saying things like that only goes to hurt the morale of our troops!”. At this point, you apparently hate America for processing knowledge with rational thought. I had no idea that such an act bordered on treason, but apparently it does.

However, a simple review of the facts shows that maybe people on their side tend to underestimate the intelligence of the men and women of our armed forces. Sure, armed forces radio has (until recently) broadcast Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis with no counterpoint. If that’s all I heard, perhaps I’d think that he made at least some sense. But it seems that the people on the ground over there have a better grasp of reality than many of their SUV driving, yellow ribbon magneted “supporters” back here at home.


How Appropriate That This
Ribbon Covers A Gas Tank

Many of them are disgusted with the lack of armor they receive. They’ve also seen the effects of having their veteran’s benefits reduced. They’ve read stories of a soldier that was actually being charged for the armor that was discarded from his wounded body as he was being evacuated by helicopter from a combat zone.

Finally, they have access to the internet, just like we do here. As such, they have access to news outlets that previous soldiers have not. We’ve seen hits on this site from several hotspots in Iraq (hiya, troops!). Because of this contact with the outside world, today’s combat soldier can get a pretty comprehensive view of why they’re there.

Apparently, the average soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan has a better grasp of the truth than the average American here at home.

The first measure of this sentiment came in the form of Paul Hackett, a soldier who returned from Iraq and decided to run for congress in Ohio, narrowly losing in a district that is one of the most heavily Republican in the country. He ran, of course, as a Democrat. He was assailed by the Limbaughs of the world as a publicity-seeking liberal, who volunteered to go to Iraq as a way to pad his resume’. Even if that were true (it’s not, of course), I’d be pretty impressed with someone who would risk his life in a war zone so that they could better serve their country once they got back home.

It would be easy to dismiss a Paul Hackett if he were a statistical anomaly. After all, everyone knows that the troops are all Republican, right? If you support the troops, then you must be a Republican, too.

Apparently that little notion holds no merit. According to VETPAC, there are currently 55 people (non-incumbents) running for federal House and Senate seats this fall who are veterans. Would you care to guess how many of them are Democrats? Even I was surprised to learn that of this group of 55, only TWO are Republicans. To put it another way, over 96% of all veterans challenging for federal office in this country are running as Democrats. What does that tell you about the overall sentiment of our soldiers? There are several possible answers, but it certainly tells me that the current sentiment of our veterans is that they are not remotely happy with the level of support or consideration that they are currently receiving in Washington DC.

I suggest you try the preceding exercise with one of your Kool-Aid drinking buddies the next time he or she accuses you of not supporting our troops. I know that I’ll do my best to continue to support them (well, at least 96.36% of them anyway) in their next phase of public service. Feel free to solicit the same real support from your conservative friends.

Or, perhaps, maybe they’re the ones that hate America?


Reprinted With Permission From The Blue Republic

[DemInDistress]

1. as much as I hated that scumbag cheat and thief on 911

I set aside my hate and supported the war effort in AFGHANISTAN. To hunt down the alleged mastermind of 911 and his minions. However in Dec.01' bush (coalition troops) had Osama trapped inside Tora Bora and allowed him to escape, he claimed to have outsourced the capture of Osama to the Pakistanis (lol). They bush began the slow transfer of troops to Kuwait for action in Iraq. On March 19 2003 I didn't and along with 55% of the country did not support war in Iraq on such bogus claims that Saddam had WMD'S and could kill me and you in 45 minutes. So,my support for the troops is this, 'BRING THEM HOME NOW"..Stop killing our soldiers in a war based clearly on lies and deceptions.

Thank you..