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January 30, 2005

Loving the troops means never having to say you're sorry

The Iraqis are off to polls today in droves. With all my heart I wish them better luck than we in the US have. They certainly deserve it.

Today marks another of the many Bush benchmarks for the troops to almost be on their way home. I hope this one sticks.

I've been an aggressive critic of the war in Iraq in many ways. Due to my criticisms, I've been accused of hating the troops and hating America. New York Times columnist Frank Rich writes this morning about his observance of this phenomenon:

But in at least one way we are not back in Vietnam. Iraq hawks, like Vietnam hawks before them, often take the line that to criticize America's mission in Iraq is to attack the troops. That paradigm just doesn't hold. Americans, including those opposed to the war, love the troops (Lynndie England always excepted). Not even the most unhinged Bush hater is calling our all-volunteer army "baby killers." This time, paradoxically enough, it is often those who claim to love the troops the most - and who have the political power to help alleviate their sacrifice - who turn out to be the troops' false friends.

There was, for instance, according to the Los Angeles Times, "nary a mention" of the Iraq war or "the prices paid by American soldiers and their families" at the lavish Inauguration bash thrown for the grandees of the Christian right by the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition at Washington's Ritz-Carlton. This crowd cares about the troops much the way the Fifth Avenue swells in the 1936 Hollywood classic "My Man Godfrey" cared about the "forgotten men" of the Depression - as fashion ornaments and rhetorical conveniences. In that screwball comedy, a socialite on a scavenger hunt collects a genuine squatter from the shantytown along the East River. "All you have to do is go to the Waldorf-Ritz Hotel with me," she tells her recruit, "and I'll show you to a few people and then I'll send you right back."

It is odd how the right (in general) shouts lipservice to their reverence for the troops. Purchasing those yellow ribbon magnets for their Hummers and swelling with pride at the sight of a US flag. Or saluting their President on the deck of an aircraft carrier... his codpiece in tow. But real support...REAL reverence from this group, is sorely lacking.

Real support constitutes sending these soldiers to war with proper body armor. Real support means sending them to war with correctly armored vehicles. It means sending them to war with enough ammunition.

In other words, it means sending our troops to war with a plan to win the peace.

I sincerely hope the Iraqis have this election and in the end it's considered legitimate. That the US can start pulling out troops and no more of our young people have to die for Bush's Folly. That would be the ultimate way to support our troops.

Posted by Carla at January 30, 2005 08:41 AM