Is there a leading politician in this country, Republican or
Democrat, who doesn’t pledge their “Support for the troops”? Just mentioning the phrase is enough to make
them all snap to attention, as a far away look comes into their eyes, and they place
their hands over their hearts. For the
likes of Bush and Cheney this is a way of trying to intimidate everyone who
opposes their criminal wars to shut up and obey them. It’s the argument Bush uses to oppose cutting
funding for wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
For many Democrats its how they blunt the anger and outrage
so many people have at the war, and get them to acquiesce to a “reasonable”
position – meaning dropping the demand to end the war now, which would mean getting
the US military out of Iraq now. It’s the argument Teddy Kennedy and others use
to justify why they can’t demand an end to the war, or even try to cut off
funding it. It is a way of cutting the
heart out of the anger and opposition so many people expressed on January 27 in
DC and elsewhere, and in fact rendering it harmless.
What would be the consequences of the anti-war movement in
this country taking up the position of “supporting the troops”? Where would it take the opposition of the
people in the weeks ahead?
When you get right down to it, “supporting the troops” can mean
only one thing. It means supporting the
military that is waging an unjust war. The
military armed with the most “advanced”, death dealing arsenal the world has
ever known, and using it to pulverize two impoverished, bleeding countries into
submission acceptable to the lords of the US empire. The military that is responsible for Fallujah,
Guantanamo, Abu
Ghraib, and countless other atrocities.
The troops have to face the cold hard reality of what they
are being used for, and the sooner they do the better it will be for the whole
world, including them. They are being
used to fight a war that is unjust, immoral, illegal, and must be stopped. Now. And
everyone in this country has to confront the reality of the atrocities being
done in our name, and the escalation and expansion of those atrocities that
Bush and Co. are pushing for, in the name of “supporting the troops”.
“Supporting the troops” can only lead to one thing –
supporting the monstrous war the troops are waging. The troops who should be supported are the
troops who speak out against and organize resistance to these atrocities.
Support the Troops Who Refuse to Fight:
Lt. Ehren Watada Goes to Trial Feb. 5 for Refusing to Fight an Unjust War
Watch:
A Soldier’s Duty? The Ehren Watada Story (documentary):