Wednesday, June 21, 2006
J-Pod at the NYPost wants us
John Podhoretz of the New York Post wants for us to consider the deaths of Privates Thomas Tucker and Kristian Menchaca and to "to put real meaning behind the meaningless guarantee that "we all support the troops." [his words, not mine]. And he's right. No one should say that they "support the troops" when they really dont. Empty gestures are just that, empty gestures. The question that I have is: What does it mean to "support the troops"? If it means that you wish them no harm, that you respect them for their career choices, or that you feel their [and their families] pain everytime a soldier is killed or terribly wounded, then I support the troops. However, in his article J-Pod adds a new category to the meaning of supporting the troops:
"Will they show support for our troops at the moment they most need it - real support, as opposed to crocodile tears and the displays of profound disrespect for their mission? Or will they continue to use any means possible - including harsh judgments of the horrifying split-second choices made by young men in a dangerous situation who have put their lives on the line for the rest of us - to get at the president whom Sullivan, with his typical tone of reserved understatement, yesterday called "shallow, monstrous, weak and petty"? "
According to him, "real support" for the troops means to support the mission they've been given. In other words, if you "support the troops" but dont support the mission, then you dont really support them; it's all "crocodile." The problem that J-Pod and other war cheerleaders fail to even admit is that the mission given to the troops by Bush is crooked. The [illegal] invasion of Iraq was launched on false premises. If anything, we're nothing more than agents of agression in Iraq. You can dismiss the "bush lied, soldiers and more than 4ok Iraqis died" as left-wing lunacy (though I must disclose I voted for Bush in the last election), but that's how things played out. All the reasons the American people were given as to why we had to invade Iraq were bogus and have dissolved into thin air. Yet, it seems as if JPod wants us to support such illegitimate use of brute force that were unleashed on a country that didn't attack us. If this were WWII not only would I support the troops, but I'd be serving in the frontlines; however, Husseim was never Hitler and the invasion of Iraq will never be Normandy.
"Will they show support for our troops at the moment they most need it - real support, as opposed to crocodile tears and the displays of profound disrespect for their mission? Or will they continue to use any means possible - including harsh judgments of the horrifying split-second choices made by young men in a dangerous situation who have put their lives on the line for the rest of us - to get at the president whom Sullivan, with his typical tone of reserved understatement, yesterday called "shallow, monstrous, weak and petty"? "
According to him, "real support" for the troops means to support the mission they've been given. In other words, if you "support the troops" but dont support the mission, then you dont really support them; it's all "crocodile." The problem that J-Pod and other war cheerleaders fail to even admit is that the mission given to the troops by Bush is crooked. The [illegal] invasion of Iraq was launched on false premises. If anything, we're nothing more than agents of agression in Iraq. You can dismiss the "bush lied, soldiers and more than 4ok Iraqis died" as left-wing lunacy (though I must disclose I voted for Bush in the last election), but that's how things played out. All the reasons the American people were given as to why we had to invade Iraq were bogus and have dissolved into thin air. Yet, it seems as if JPod wants us to support such illegitimate use of brute force that were unleashed on a country that didn't attack us. If this were WWII not only would I support the troops, but I'd be serving in the frontlines; however, Husseim was never Hitler and the invasion of Iraq will never be Normandy.
# posted by Raf C. @ 6:34 AM 
