On a more serious note, I don't support the troops because of the sense in which most people wave the flag and write, type, and paste "support the troops". What does supporting the troops really mean? Does it mean supporting their mission? Does it mean supporting them unquestionably no matter what the individual character of the soldier is? And does "support the troops" sometimes mean that if you disagree with the missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, or the myriad other places our troops are, that you are Anti-American, and that you want them to fail, in essence die?
I don't support the troops because I want them out of most of the places they are in. To me that is supporting the troops. It's taking them out of harms way when they don't need to be. It's supporting the ones who have done their job when they come back home, instead of letting them fall into physical and psychological despair. It's prosecuting the ones who savagely murder innocent civilians, or who defile and debase their remains. Supporting the troops is not just pasting a bumper on your car, and instead voting, canvassing, and lobbying for more support for veteran's hospitals and health care. It's supporting just causes and judicious use of the military, not as a tool for imperialistic expansion, and world hegemony. It's not supporting crazy gun toters who get a thrill off of shooting innocent civilians like they are white tailed deer.
Support the Troops has become a mantra for the right and the propaganda that they have spread. We are in the midst of a new era ( I hope) in America, it will take years to overturn the civic regression this country has been experience lately, but there is just something about "Support the Troops" that really really bothers me. This country is obsessed with guns, the military, and beating up the rest of the world. Call me a pacifist, but I find every war debatable from a "just cause" standpoint, and I think this mantra only fuels the fire.
What is it about the soldier that they have always been glorified. The American worker does just as much, if not more, than the American soldier to help build this country (Though they are essentially in the same category; Soldiers are workers) Why not a "Support the Worker" bumper sticker. I must say I greatly respect the World War II generation, even the Vietnam vets, because most of those soldiers had no choice. The one's who were drafted just put their heads down and went to war as a duty, there is something that a person has to respect about that. Though the world politics that surround these events are disgraceful, and wrongful on both sides, you have to respect a man or woman that does something they may not want to because they are called up.
So maybe I do support the troops, I just don't "support the troops". I support the troops like I support my mom or dad going to work, nobody wants to do it really, but they have to in order to survive. And who doesn't want those men and women to come back safely? And leaving a quagmire isn't disgraceful for the troops. That prospect is nonsense, but what isn't is the fact that it is dishonorable that they have been used like pawns for all of history, especially in recent American history. Rich men and women make war, and the poor generally fight them, and then they are cast aside like the dispensable worker in civilian society. You want to support the troops? Stop saying it with a bumper sticker, and start questioning the pretense for any war, question authority, and just think about the power "support the troops" had for our incompetent former president. It squelched dissent and honest debate, it was used as a weapon, and that's why I don't "support the troops".
9 comments:
Perhaps you support the troops, but, not the concept of the soldier.
Maybe. I alway support somebody who is trying to do their job, but in terms of the soldier, I disagree with the brainwashing they experience, the scorn one receives if they criticize their missions, and how they are used as a means to an end for some ideologue in government. I guess I'm just able to separate the soldier from their mission. I think their is a distinct line between supporting the troops as people doing their job, and the missions they are sent on. But I fear for many in society there is no difference, and to question their mission, is to question the integrity of the soldier, and I take exception to that. Leaders create the pretext for military action, the soldier is just doing their job.
Though I respect your choice to say so, I don't agree.
I'm not sure you fully grasp what I'm saying, or I think you would agree.
"Leaders create the pretext for military action, the soldier is just doing their job."--Sterling point SMD.
In perspective, is this to say one shouldn't wear a Livestrong bracelet or colored ribbons to support causes? Essentially, concerning your point, not everyone who needs support will see everyone other person who is honoring the cause by sporting a ribbon, a bracelet, a pin, or designated colors. I believe the "Support Our Troops" sticker is a collective effort to bring light to the cause. It's as if the sticker is connoting the fact that one has to support troops because the war isn't justified. If there existed a general support for the war, I don't think that the "Troops" sticker would be such a dominate icon on passing cars. The sticker isn't there to say "Hey, our soldiers are prestigious, and we need to commend their every effort because they are defending our country." I believe it's more of, "Hey, support the men and women who have opted to join the military and fight America's war, when, in fact, I don't personally support our President's decision to invade and/or attack." Also, if I’m not mistaken, the “Support the Troops” stems from the lack of support our Vietnam soldiers faced upon return from that widely unsupported war. Many people blamed our military for our government’s unjustified motives. The sticker now is letting people know that we, as the American society, understand the difference between the troops’ decision and the government’s. We understand that they are just doing their jobs.
Some valid points, but I don't think that many people who use the support our troops bumper stickers think broadly about war, militarism, and the dichotomy between government and the military. It's more of a mentality I take issue with. A bumper sticker isn't much of an effort or advocacy. It's the absolutism of the bumper sticker and it's form that oversimplifies the issue. To many it seems that there is "support the troops" or you're against the troops if you speak out against the war, because to speak out against the war is to dishonor those people over there fighting. It seems one thing the new president is actively trying to do is to change this kind of absolutism, so I hope this changes some. I wish you were right on a broad scale though, and more people would think like you. And I wish that more would speak up for other things as well. Of all the posts I've written, I knew this one would generate those most response, worker's rights, poverty, and the maldistribution of wealth, no, but if anybody criticizes the military at all one becomes inundated with responses.
Ok so. I am not the same anonymous as before - I just wanted to let you know that.
A lot of times, the people that buy the "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers or whatever, are in a way contributing to our troops, whether or not they believe that it is a just cause. The money that people spend on those things, in most cases, gets collected and given to the troops, whether it be through supplies or whatever.
Also, I think that this one generated a lot of responses not because people only care about this but perhaps because this is one thing that people are educated enough to talk about? What do you see on t.v.? War. Rarely do people see things about poverty, workers right, et cetera. Sure, those things are out there, somewhere in the media, but they are not at the Forefront and perhaps some people think that they even need to be a little more educated about the topics in order to even understand them. The war however... everyone knows and understands at least the very basics behind that.
Thanks for the comment, but I completely disagree. I wouldn't call many watching tv education in any form. It's full of bias, lacks substantive discussion, and rarely do tv news anchors ask the pointed questions that would allow a viewer to become "educated." This is true especially when it comes to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Heck, you're even hard pressed to find the truth regarding that tragedy in print, not to mention, the facts about the lies surrounding Iraq that put our soldiers in harms way unnecessarily.
Since war is at the forefront of the visuals on tv also means that there is a lot of government generated propaganda that they feed to tv stations where it is just regurgitated. Again, real news comes from independent sources used collectively. Even then you barely scratch the surface of knowledge on any given subject. I think the public is largely ignorant of the circumstances that have driven our hours. The don't understand them historically, and on a global scale. Believe it or not, even our war in Afghanistan has more behind it than the deceptively simple fact that terrorists attacked America. War is not just about good guys vs bad guys. It's less about the soldiers, than the governments behind them, when we talk about why war happens and continue to happen.
Again, if one wants to help the soldier little bumper sticker does nothing. Often they are forgotten about when they come home. To me, support the troops is not a bumper sticker when they are away at war and then forgetting about them when they come home. Typical of power structures to use average citizens as pawns and then relegate them to obscurity and a second-class position once they have served their purpose.
I think we agree on one thing, supporting these people is important. I just believe it should be done in more meaningful ways, and with a more developed argument. Perhaps somewhere out there there is a movement that is questioning why we go to war, why governments abuse our soldiers, as they do every worker under the sun.
There are more issues than just the war and soldiers, and furthermore, much much more one can do than slap some bumper sticker on the ass of your car and call it advocacy or civic engagement. I would like to get a bumper sticker that says "Support the Troops, Duh" because who doesn't? We need to go further than that. I support the troops, but I think more needs to be done than a simple "good job!". Families are critical for their support structure, but the rest of society needs to start questioning the idiotic places their military gets sent, and get angry how many of them struggle psychologically and economically when they come back home and have a hard time finding car. "Support the Troops" and watching tv just isn't enough, and making that your sole cause doesn't cut it. American's have turned their protest, advocacy, and civic engagement into a bumper sticker. Great. And they get their "news" strickly from tv and mainstream media. Certainly all of America isn't like this, and you may be one of the people who is very well informed, but I worry that more communities out there are like my own, insular, grossly uninformed, and chronically uninspired.
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