"Support Our Troops"

Support Our Troops. A deceptively simple phrase. For some it is a patriotic statement and little more. For others, it means standing by the cause and staying the course, come hell or high water. For me, it's neither. When I see those little yellow-ribbon magnets stuck to the bumpers of Hummers, it really ticks me off. This person in front of me in the traffic line, claiming to support those in uniform, is driving the type of vehicle that the troops should be. While the army doesn't have adequate armor for its far-too-few trasnsports, Joe Blow in Kansas can buy a Hum-V with his tax cut. Bullshit. The Iraq war budget is nearly half a trillion dollars. That's right, trillion with a T. Where is all this money going, if not to the troops or reconstruction?

Support Our Troops. Send them into battle with inadequate equipment, send them to die and be kidnapped and tortured, send them to become one more number on a headline. Send them to die, because the government doesn't bother to craft a functional strategy. Send them to kill innocents, because you never know who's a terrorist. Send them to die at the hands of the families whose brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and children were killed in crossfire or by shrapnel. Send them away, never to come back.

If I could, I'd restart all of this. If Iraq's government was in connection with the Taliban and Al'Quaida, why couldn't we have sent in the troops as friends, to learn about the people, gather information, make connections, and root out those who would kill innocents, using tips forged with trust? Why did His Fraudulency, the Commander in Chief, send them in with guns blazing, sowing hatred and fear and death? I don't understand it. I support the withdrawl of troops to regroup. Although our international image is that of a bully, we should try to earn some trust back, try to save any last vestiges of honor we have. I wish I could make something happen, but I can't. I'm not old enough, prominent enough, or rich enough to get any attention today. The best I can do is try to learn, and speak out.