If you don't stand behind our troops

There seems to be a conspiracy against the military by civilians that rails against everything the military attempts and worst of all muckrakes the men in uniform. One particularly politically minded mother decided to make use of her son's death to harass the military and President Bush:

Cindy Sheehan asked President Bush, "Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"

Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die in Viet Nam?"

Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in Korea?

Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to die at Iwo Jima?"

Another mother asked President W. Wilson, "Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"

Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to die at Gett ysburg?"

And yet another mother asked President G. Washington, "Why did my son have to die near Valley Forge?"

Then long, long ago, a mother asked, "Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of Jerusalem?"

The answers to all these are similar -- "that others may have life and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."

This was emailed to me with no author and I thought the magnitude and the simplicity were awesome.

IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS,

PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!

Originally posted by curiousity
IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS,

PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!

This is truely a heart warming piece of crap.

Elevating military troops to the level of jesus christ is completely contrary to any interpretation of the bible that ive ever seen. How is this not blasphemy to any good christian?

If you must support war at least have the courage do to so on its merits. Jesus has nothing to do with the iraq crusade.

Most people know how to make the distinction between the desicionmakers in the military and the soldiers, its only the fruits that act and protest against the troops themselves.

Most people know how to make the distinction between the decisionmakers in the US and its citizens, its only the fruits that act and protest against the US people as a whole.

The fruits are a very small minority that gives the people who see things as they are a bad name.

Originally posted by df1
This is truely a heart warming piece of crap.

Elevating military troops to the level of jesus christ is completely contrary to any interpretation of the bible that ive ever seen. How is this not blasphemy to any good christian?

If you must support war at least have the courage do to so on its merits. Jesus has nothing to do with the iraq crusade.

Americans, particulary of right-wing origin, have a tendency to hide behind Jesus and their Christian morality whenever reality strikes them. Its their way of ensuring that no matter what, they will always live in a black-and-white fantasy world where good always eclipses evil.

Standing behind your troops has got to be THEE slickest form of propaganda EVER devised!
Of course nobody wants to see the sons and daughters of their country die, so it is right to support them, but it is also not right to support what they do if you disagree.

This is so full of fuzzy logic that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Yet, the logical mind does realise it's 100% propaganda

Like I said, SLICK!
The Bush regime does some things right I guess, fooling some of the people ALL of the time.

What I'd like to know is why the 'support of the troops' seems to disapear once those troops are wounded or sick and no longer serve?

Your support does nothing for the troops but make you feel rightious.

"Support the troops' is an empty statement, that really means nothing at all and helps no one unless you back it up with action.

If you really want to support the troops go lobby to have Gulf War Illness and Agent orange poisening recognized as the true problems they are by our government.

Support the troops by refusing to support governments that send those troops to fight illegal wars to further political and financial agendas.

As many as 100,000 of the 700,000 troops who served during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and 1991 have reported symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, memory loss, balance disturbances, sleep disorders, depression, chronic diarrhea and concentration problems.

"They don't want to find the problem," he said. "They don't want to address it."

www.cnn.com...

'We Have to Do More’

On any given day there are an estimated 300,000 homeless vets.

"We have a system that is absolutely, positively, totally at capacity," Baskerville says. "It's a struggle every day to try and figure out where we can get services for our veterans."

abcnews.go.com...

Where is our support now! What are you doing to help these discarded vets!



[edit on 22/7/2006 by ANOK]

Originally posted by thematrix
Most people know how to make the distinction between the desicionmakers in the military and the soldiers, its only the fruits that act and protest against the troops themselves.

Really? Let me tell that as a person who made the decision to comply with deployment orders and invade Iraq with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and is now 70% disabled as a result that I do not support the war or troops who choose to fight it.

We all made a decision. Go to war or go to jail.

It was really easy to raise my right hand and enlist to "defend the constitution" and it was really easy to make the decision to fight an immoral war rather than go to jail.

Originally posted by curiousity
Another mother...

To be honest, if I had a son had been killed in war I may be inclined to ask 'Why did my son die?'. I also imagine that this sentiment overrides any political sentiments of many of those to whom this tragedy befalls.

Then again, I have not lost a child to war, so I cannot say exactly how I would react, but to almost level an accusation of disloyalty at people who have lost kids to war seems to me rather, if I dare say, immature.

Originally posted by curiousity

This was emailed to me with no author and I thought the magnitude and the simplicity were awesome.

IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS,

PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!

If you thought that the "power and magnitude" of this wonton piece of emotionalistic flotsom was "awesome", your powers of critical thinking and social responsibility are to be considered somewhat suspect.

If the cause be just, the justice of the act is clear for all to discern; without need of religio-political "spin".

And in answer to your fascistic challenge, I have attempted to "stand in front of them" since the day I was allowed to vote!

"Our troops" are expected to stand behind us! They support us! We expect them to sacrifice, and if needed, lay down thier lives for Us!

It therfore behooves us to honor and defend that commitment by NEVER! taking it for granted, by NEVER! diminishing its value for the sake of mere expedient politics.

I have tried to stand in front of them, to defend and protect them from every sniveling power-crazed politician I could; yet , backed by corporate warfare-profiteers, media-spin doctors and sleaze-ball legal consultants, the worst of the slime always seems to rise to the top of the policy-making chain.

And more lives end in the horror of wars for whatever the mass-market flavor of the day happens to be.

Are you truly "standing behind' our troops?

Or are you actually just cowering behind a shield of noble human lives; lives which deserve so much better than you could ever offer them?

You should always question why troops die. You should always question the government and its methods. Nowadays Republicans like accusing people of not standing behind the troops if we don't support the Iraqi War. Well hello, we in fact are. We want the troops home, not being used as target practice for a war WE STILL do not know the true reason for going...

Also, yes the troops are trained to defend us and the country, but that does not mean the troops are the "best and the brightest" of America. My brother is in the army and he is not the best nor brightest.

ya know, it would be nice if our troops had clean water and decent food, instead of the crap that haliburtonn's been feeding them....

I think the general population supports our troops more than the government officials that sent them to iraq...they chose to support their coorporate buddies over them...

Originally posted by dawnstar
ya know, it would be nice if our troops had clean water and decent food, instead of the crap that haliburtonn's been feeding them....

They do. Have you been over there? As long as you use the bottled water for drinking and water buffalo for shaving and not the other way around (as many do out of laziness) you will be fine. So far as the food goes, Iraqis will gladly sell you two or three cokes and a plate of chicken for 2 or 3 bucks, or you can just to the DFAC (if you have one) and get a hamburger. If all else fails, aafes will sell you food in the shopets or you can eat an MRE, just like when you were training for war in the field.

We would also sometimes deviate from our route and swing by Baghdad International for some good old Burger King or the Bob Hope DFAC

So many times in Baghdad we would stop at the nicest restaurants, park our hummers in a 4 truck diamond in the parking lot, and watch as nice Iraqis set up a table between the trucks for us to dine on. They would even send a runner to get you whatever you want if they didn’t have it (I always wanted diet coke and they never had any.)

I sure do miss that Iraqi food and strong Turkish coffee!


Don’t believe the hype.

Originally posted by ANOK
What I'd like to know is why the 'support of the troops' seems to disapear once those troops are wounded or sick and no longer serve?

Your support does nothing for the troops but make you feel rightious.

"Support the troops' is an empty statement, that really means nothing at all and helps no one unless you back it up with action.

If you really want to support the troops go lobby to have Gulf War Illness and Agent orange poisening recognized as the true problems they are by our government.

Support the troops by refusing to support governments that send those troops to fight illegal wars to further political and financial agendas.

As many as 100,000 of the 700,000 troops who served during Operation Desert now and Storm and Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and 1991 have reported symptoms ranging from chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, memory loss, balance disturbances, sleep disorders, depression, chronic diarrhea and concentration problems.

"They don't want to find the problem," he said. "They don't want to address it."

www.cnn.com...

'We Have to Do More’

On any given day there are an estimated 300,000 homeless vets.

"We have a system that is absolutely, positively, totally at capacity," Baskerville says. "It's a struggle every day to try and figure out where we can get services for our veterans."

abcnews.go.com...

Where is our support now! What are you doing to help these discarded vets!

[edit on 22/7/2006 by ANOK]

Let me 'splain a little somethin' somethin' to you post baby boomers, ignorant as you are of the 60's, except that you've apparently decided that wearing bell-bottoms is now and again 'kewl', the reason there are homeless and ill-cared for veterans in this country can be laid at your hippie predecessors' doors. The politicos that saw your granda spitting on the returning warriors and carrying placards naming them "baby killers" remember the uproar, and still cower before it. Their descendants have learned from the bitten ones that veterans and the cost of caring for them is political baggage. The political incorrectness of having served in Vietnam cost the vets their lives, whether they returned alive to the states or in a box.

The 'make peace, not war' garbage that was spewed then is still going on, only the language has gotten a little more savvy. Do you imagine because you couch your words with political verbage it makes the soldier in the field believe you are supporting him or her? Or that anyone in general is taken in with the likes of Anok's

Support the troops by refusing to support governments that send those troops to fight illegal wars to further political and financial agendas.

Here's how you "support the troops". Pray for them. Send them messages of encouragement, send them packages of goodies, contact the families of the soldiers you know and see what they need or at least how they are doing, consider what they are doing as an honorable thing, and say so. Even if you think the war in Iraq is a waste and illegal, and all the so called "wise" things people say about it, keep it low and to yourself. Yes, I DO mean curtail your freedom of speech. It was won for you by men just like the ones in Iraq. Do you think the soldiers don't read what you say and the media repeats?

By the way, you could contact the media and instead of giving them a thumbs up for blasting the troops, call them off. Let them know you don't appreciate them second-guessing every move the soldiers are required to make. Let them know that the disloyalty shown by them towards America isn't helping America behave better, in fact it is having the opposite effect if the posters here are correct.

Just some inserts for your consideration.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Look, i stand behind the troops. That is to say, their motivation to protect this country. I've lost very young cousins to wars. I know they have good intentions.

Lets not mix apples and oranges; It is the insanity of governments, not the troops.
Namely, one dictator named Bush.
When Mr. Bush sends his girls, when Dick sends his daughter, when the senate sends their kids, when any part of government send their loved ones to war, then what you said may be a valid point.

BTW, since you mentioned it, I know of at least 4 people who should stand in front of the troops.

Originally posted by dgtempeCuriosity killed the cat.

Look, i stand behind the troops. That is to say, their motivation to protect this country. I've lost very young cousins to wars. I know they have good intentions.

Lets not mix apples and oranges; It is the insanity of governments, not the troops.
Namely, one dictator named Bush.
When Mr. Bush sends his girls, when Dick sends his daughter, when the senate sends their kids, when any part of government send their loved ones to war, then what you said may be a valid point.

BTW, since you mentioned it, I know of at least 4 people who should stand in front of the troops.

How original!

I'll bet your saying all this is a real comfort to the boys and girls in the line of fire in Iraq and elsewhere....it isn't THEM you are castigating, it's their GOVERNMENT! That's just got to make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside, knowing you JUST think they are part of the insanity of their Government. I'll bet that helps them keep their own minds sane in the face of such devastation as we are seeing little bits and pieces of and they have in their eyes 24-7.

Yeah.

Curiosity,

Just out of curiosity, what the # is wrong with you? YOU WANT ME TO BLAME THE TROOPS? NO. I wont do it, and how dare you say its the TROOPS' fault?
Go take a valium. Please.

YOU started the thread so YOU could pick a fight. That's not allowed here.
Wrong person. Its good to get to know people here, though.

Originally posted by dgtempe
how dare you say its the TROOPS' fault?

How dare you say it is not our fault? Am I not an adult? Did I not make the decision to get on the plane to Iraq, to pick up a weapon, to pull that trigger?

No one made these choices for me. I chose not to go to jail.

I did not start the war, I did not want it, I did not vote for the man who started it.

I did, however, fight it, and that is on me.

How dare any do-gooder say I hold no blame. You think that makes my job of dealing with what I did any easier? You think I should repress the heartache, pretend I don’t have the memories playing in my head like a movie, all because "its not the soldiers fault" that I went, "its not the soldiers fault" that I killed"?

Let me tell you something, it is my fault, and I am dealing with it, and every person that walks up and thanks me for what I did causes an ache deep down niside that they will never know.

Now I am not saying that we should be spat on, or have "baby killer" signs shoved in our face, but dont make us out to be sim[ple minded drones who didnt know what we were doing. We knew, we made our choice, and those of us with enough moral fiber to realize that we were wrong, that we are killers, and that we did have a choice must deal with that.

Cavs,

I honestly think these young kids who enlist in the armed forces do so with good intentions. They come mostly from poor families and its an opportunity for them to break out of the "hood" and get an education, and make men and women of themselves.
Dont carry a chip around all your life. Just some advice.

I live with a Marine who sounds just like you. The chip on HIS shoulder has weighed heavily on him all his life.

[edit on 23-7-2006 by dgtempe]

Originally posted by curiousity
Yes, I DO mean curtail your freedom of speech.

What you really mean is curtail the truth to the american public.

Do you think the soldiers don't read what you say and the media repeats?

The soldiers already know the truth and they will be living & dying the truth every day until the our occupation of iraq ends. Misrepresenting the iraq occupation only serves to conceal the failures of the occupation architects and it is a disservice to the soldiers. When an individual feels that the us government has cease performing the will of people, excercising the freedom of speech to criticize the government is not only our right, it is our duty as americans
.

Originally posted by dgtempe
Curiosity,

Just out of curiosity, what the # is wrong with you? YOU WANT ME TO BLAME THE TROOPS? NO. I wont do it, and how dare you say its the TROOPS' fault?

Didn't read the post did you? But feel free to blather on anyway.

How about instead of valium I take whatever you're on?