If it was somehow proven that anti-war rhetoric at home caused a decrease in soldier morale even if such rhetoric was qualified with a “but we support the troops,”
would you change your approach to voicing disapproval, and if so, how?
IANA American, but my answer would be no.
I am against the war, and have acted in a way that I am morally comfortable with. I have always been supportive of the folks at the bottom, while being very critical of the folks at the top. To do anything
In my view, then, if their morale is affected, it is because they have been placed in a crappy situation by a poor commander.
I’m sure I am about to get piled on but here goes. If you do not support what the troops are doing you do not “support the troops”. You can’t say I hate what you stand for and what you are doing but I somehow still support you. Feel free to disagree with the war and dislike what the troops are doing but don’t mouth the words.
Nope, not for a second.
Not that I want American troops demoralized, but well… I want them demoralized.
I want them to not be there. I want the army to break down. I want them to know the damage they are doing.
I support the troops. They work hard and give up a lot to serve our country, and we owe them something in return. Specifically, we owe it to them to not send them to fight and die unless there’s a really good reason. I consider my opposition to the war to be part of my support for the troops- I support them, and what our government is doing to them is horribly wrong.
I don’t want to jump down your throat, but I am curious about how you’d answer one question: if the troops themselves don’t want to be in the war they are fighting, should they be condemned or punished for their opposition to the war?
(I’m not talking about troops opposing the war by carrying out mutinies or something, I’m thinking more in line of grousing and telling reporters that “This is an f-ed up war,” etc.)
Have you perhaps considered the good they are doing as well?
You mean all the wonderous things that the war has brought to Iraq?
Yea, I considered those.
I support the troops by working to bring them home as soon as possible. How can you support the troops by keeping them in harm’s way when it is unjustified?
So did I. Took me about three seconds.
Loach, do you think the Vietnam War was a good idea? If you say no, are you against the troops who fought that war?
I dislike the war in Iraq, and I especially dislike the events that got us there, but I do wish the troops well and hope they succeed in the task before them, or get out alive if they should not be able to. I dislike the events, but do not wish harm on my fellow man. Is that really so hard to believe, Loach?
Quick hypothetical. You are concerned with the American troops’ lives, and don’t want to see “harm on my fellow man”… but what about the Iraqi insurgents? By making your statement about supporting them in “the task before them” - the task before them is to kill a lot of people.
The American soldiers are volunteers, as are the Iraqi insurgents (when I say insurgents, I am exclusing the terrorists and non-Iraqis who came to help). I care about as much about the Iraqi insurgent as the American soldier. I don’t want to see either of them dead. I want to see them drinking coffee together.
I feel that I must correct this statement. The Iraqi insurgents are, indeed, volunteers in the sense that they made a conscious choice to pick up a weapon and fight (or to even do something like make their home available to insurgent fighters). They are, however, not volunteers in that it is their country that was invaded; they are not fighting by choice, but by necessity. They also know that they have a very good chance of dying. That isn’t the same as America’s volunteer army (which has a relatively slim chance of dying).
More or less my idea. If all Americans overthrow and execute the leaders of the US and make me king, I’d immediately pull all US troops out of Iraq. This would have the effect of reducing the number of dead or injured US GIs in Iraq to zero. I’d think stopping US GIs from getting killed or maimed in Iraq wouldn’t be a position they’d overwhelmingly be against.
I support the troops to whatever extent I can do so without it interfering in my morally necessary condemnation of the war itself.
If necessary, I condemn the troops (unintentionally) through my condemnation of the war. Sorry about that, soldiers. I know you’ve got it hard enough without the likes of me making your situation more difficult. But you don’t belong there and as an American I’m responsible for you being there and I’m responsible for getting you the heck out of there and mopping up the mess with the minimal collateral damages.
I support the troops. I don’t support the reasons they are in harms way.
Sorry Loach, but you are wrong. Absolutely completely wrong. I can support the troops. They willingly join up, and put themselves in harms way for the good of the country. I admire and respect them for that.
Their job is to follow their orders, not to decide the rightness or wrongness of those orders. Essentially, they put their lives in the hands of their Commander in Chief for the good of their country. I don’t “hate what they stand for”, and to suggest that those who disagree with the war are just “mouthing the words” of support is just so amazingly wrong.
I’d like someone to tell me what “support the troops” means. Just what effect is my support supposed to have?
Does it mean if I put a yellow ribbon magnet on my car, somehow that’s going to improve the lot of those now in Iraq?
Had I voted for President Bush, would that have shielded a soilder from a roadside bomb?
If I listen to a Toby Keith CD, will that improve the morale of reservists fighting in Fallujah?
Tell me, and I ask this in all sincerity, just what, specifically, should I be doing to help the troops? Because I’ve yet to hear a good explanation of how my opposition to the war and how it has been run could adversely affect those fighting in Iraq.
But I do know that my time will come to support the troops. Our taxes will be going to support the widows, widowers and children of those killed in battle; to heal the broken bodies and minds of soldiers and Marines; to retrain those who can no longer work in the jobs they left to fight in Iraq. That’s how I’ll be supporting the troops.
But if you’ve got a better idea, something more immediate that would prevent the deaths, injuries and hardships, please let me know.
If we, as citizens of a democracy, are in any way responsible for the well-being of the country’s soldiers, doesn’t that mean we have a duty to speak up if we believe those soldiers are being sent into an unjust war? Doesn’t “supporting the troops” mean doing what we can to ensure that if they must be sent to fight and die, that it’s for a just cause?