Supporting the troops, not war

I listened to an interview this morning with Deborah Johns of Move America Forward - the anti-Cindy Sheehan movement, after which I had just one question: where do these people come from?

As time goes by, and I age rather ungracefully, it seems more and more obvious that we really have a lot of shallow-minded people in this country. Really. If their head wasn't physically attached they wouldn't even consider the possibility of taking it with them when they left the house in the morning. But then, it's not like they need it either.

I am so tired of the ridiculously insulting and idiotic statement that
"If you don't support the war, you don't support the troops" that I could just scream. In fact, I think I will. Cover your ears please....

Aaarrgghhhhhh!!!!!.....

Thanks, but I still don't feel much better.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm no Cindy Sheehan supporter. She has crossed into the dark side, especially when calling our troops "murderers" and Iraqi insurgents "freedom fighters." But trauma will do that to you. Not to mention the puppeteering of various far-left radical elements.

But Deborah Johns is no better. 180 degrees removed from Cindy Sheehan, but just as stupid in every comment.

I wonder if the fact that she sounded so chipper and cheery at 7AM had anything to do with the fact that I was so easily pissed off. I needed coffee in a bad way to listen to crap like this so early in the morning.

When she was asked in the interview whether people could support the troops while being opposed to the war, she said "I don't see how that's possible."

Well, let's look at ways that's possible.

First, let's remember that our troops are our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Regardless of why, they are currently in harm's way. I can support them through gifts of care packages and letters of encouragement - they are afterall doing the best they can in a situation they have no control over.

I can also support them by urging our government to support them. Give them proper body and vehicle armor, and equipment. Support the families they had to leave behind with no income or benefits. And take care of them and their families when they get injured or killed. And I can support them by protesting our government when they do not meet these responsibilities.

But the biggest way I can support the troops is by working hard to ensure that our government never puts them in harm's way under false pretenses. Their lives are more important than that, and we have a responsibility to make sure that when their lives are risked, it is for the undeniably right reason.

Maybe you've noticed - but not one of these things has one damn thing to do with supporting the war.

To continue on the "I'm trying to prove myself a bigger idiot than Cyndy Sheehan", Ms. Johns continued with two utterly false statements. I don't think she was lying - I think she truly believes this misinformation, which is unfortunate because it makes it very hard to take someone seriously who is so obviously out of touch with reality.

Her first moment that would have made coffee spout out of my nose, had I had any, came when she claimed

"Our troops are doing what they want to do. They all volunteered and they all believe in what they're doing."

Yes, that's right - so many of our National Guard troops enlisted thinking they were going to go off to fight a war in a foreign land. But wait, that's not what the National Guard is for is it... nor is it what the recruiters told them they'd be doing when they were recruited. Somehow the fact that a person volunteered for the National Guard now implies that he (or she) did so specifically to go fight in a war - and for less pay and fewer benefits than had they joined the Army (whose job by the way is to be our nation's combatants). Hmmm, not too bright.

Her second moment which made me wish for a deer to run onto the highway so I could slam into something at 65 mph was to again propagate two of the most misused myths about our military - in the same statement. Her comment was something along the lines that

the "majority of our troops enlisted after 9/11 and truly believe in what they're doing."

Well, first of all that's simply not true. The real numbers show that there has been no real increase in enlistment since 9/11. The annual enlistment numbers and growth have stayed the same as they were prior to 9/11.

And second, how many times do we have to go down this stupid discussion path... Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11! Period. Over. End of story.

I have a vision that someday on a long stretch of highway in the middle of Nevada the Sheehan bus will be headed west while the MAF bus is headed east. In a sudden act of omniscient intervention, the two buses collide and are taken to their respective gates of peace. In the great aftermath, the public realize that we can support the troops while at the same time recognizing that this war is wrong and we should be doing the best thing possible for the troops - working on a plan to bring them home.

Maybe then I can drive without listening to this incessant babbling nonsense.

Or maybe I just need some coffee.