Really Support the Troops!

Many people sport this sticker on their cars without really giving it much thought. A sticker is little more than a palliative to assuage the guilt of risking other people’s lives for a questionable imperialistic war. Whatever people think of this war, everyone is unanimous in wishing the men and women of the American armed forces well. Soldiers are trained to follow orders and perform well under any conditions, and our military has and is performing superbly. Our young deserve and need our respect and support but, most of all, they need to be brought home.

Supporting the administration of this war and those who administer it is another matter completely. The Bush administration’s ethically challenged rationale for this war and its lack of support and direction is nothing less than a catastrophic failure and is criminally immoral in its execution. The armed force the Bush administration sent to Iraq was inadequate from the start. The lack of a plan for the war after the initial invasion was unconscionable because it led to the unnecessary deaths of many of the 3,100 Americans and over 700,000 Iraqis and Afghans so far killed in this ill-conceived, ill-administered misadventure. Those responsible could be reasonably charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Tens of thousands of our wounded and battle fatigued will never again be able to live normal lives. The lives are marked forever by a senseless exercise of political arrogance.

The mercenary forces and the no-bid military support businesses hired by this administration such as Black Water were interested in little more than self-aggrandizement and maximizing profits. Never before has a war been so privatized and privatized to the disadvantage of our troops. Mercenaries seriously compromised the morale of our military personnel by earning ten to twenty times their pay.

Halliburton, Bechtel, Kellogg, Brown and Root were adept at bilking a complicit Bush administration with Dick Cheney, a US VP still on Halliburton’s payroll with a $34 million dollar supposed buyout. The unethical and corrupt bungling of the Bush administration further put our military in harm’s way, and yet our military performed admirably and continues to perform admirably in an impossible situation. The Iraqi government and people have lost all hope of a stable government. Two million of the best educated and wealthiest Iraqis have fled their homeland because they believe no solution is forthcoming from the Bush administration or from their newly elected sovereign government because the people rightly view it as an American puppet. The Iraqi government will gain legitimacy only after the Americans go home.

Iraq is a quagmire with no hope of winning or withdrawing on the horizon for our armed forces so they must soldier on in chaos.

The picture in Iraq has gone from gray to ebony black. The Bushites have no plan and the Iraqi government is hamstrung by the American occupiers. So what can the American voter do to support the troops?

What the voter can do is to support our troops by supporting and voting for a change in the administration of the war. How can the voter do that with two years remaining of Bush’s presidency?

The answer is quite obvious to all. Since all politics are local and administered locally, the voter must turn out of office all office holders who support the Bush administration in any way. The voter can refuse to vote for any new candidate who sympathizes with this administration. For the voter in our area, the direction is clear: Dump all Republican and take to the streets and bang those pots and pans as Molly Ivins suggested in her very last column. Demonstrate every way possible against this war. So doing worked to get us out of Viet Nam … it will get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Refuse to pay your taxes and like Henry David Thoreau go to jail to protest an unjust war.

These actions will help the voter clear his conscience and do something concrete to really support the troops. What would you do if your son or daughter, grandson or daughter were in Iraq or Afghanistan? Behave accordingly. They are your son/daughters, grandsons/granddaughters.