OK, I need help on a few things?

Question

There are a few things that I'm just not getting and I need help in understanding.

1.) I just don't (honestly) understand how not supporting the current administrations policy on Iraq equates to "not supporting the troops". I don't agree with the decision to go into Iraq (I think it was an unecessary diversion of resources away from Afghanistan). I am a veteran (too old to re-enlist) and support our troops 1000%. They need the right equipment, support for the families they had to leave, more pay for what they do, etc. I just don't get the logic of some who confuse the two issues.
2) Is there something wrong with the amount of troops we've lost being the top story on CNN or any other network? Don't the troops we've lost deserve to be the number one story?
3) When some people refer to "wasted lives", don't you understand that they are refering to the fact that we didn't have to go into Iraq to fight terrorists? Unfortunately, they are there by the bushel now.

Steve - I obviously don't have the intellectual gravitas that you do, that's why I asked for help in understanding. Thank you for your kind words about my avatar and sexuality.

Meathead - thank you for NOT answering my question.

Lynn - thank you for being thick as a brick. BTW, prison sex was the best I've ever had.

Answer 1

From what I have seen, the administration has used some dirty tactics. They try to make it seem anyone that raises any questions concerning oversight is not supporting the troops.....its crazy

Answer 2

1) No one should be accused of not supporting the troops just because they don't support the current administration. I happen to support the Administration but I can understand why there are those that don't. I can only talk for myself, but I tend to feel that drawing the line between positive support of our troops and not supporting our troops is when people purposely attempt to undermine our government and in turn this puts our troops in more jeopardy. There are ways to protest our occupation of Iraq and the War in general without empowering the enemy. As a veteran I would think you could understand that. So many people claim to support our troops but they say and do things that lends credence to our enemies.

2) There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Top story on CNN (or any other news media network) being what is happening with our troops. They are what is most important in my opinion. On the other hand, while they are reporting the losses there should also be fair representation of the successes. What we hear from our troops more often than not is that the real story is not being told of what is happening in Iraq. You read that on this message board everyday. Why aren't you concerned about that? We all give our opinions on how the Iraqi's feel about our military being in Iraq yet when we get the chance to listen to what they say we ignore them. As an example, please read the article to the following link. This is a message from Iraqi's.

http://www.krg.org/articles/article_detail.asp?ArticleNr=15438&LNNr=28&RNNr=70&LangNr=12

I don't claim to know it all or much more than anyone else and I myself have been struggling to "get it" probably as long as you have. Maybe if we try to work together we can all "get it".

Thank You for the way you worded your question. You posed it in such a way that I didn't have to feel defensive when answering.

Answer 3

I wish I could say that I could help you understand your three very cogent points. Unfortunately, I can't because I agree with you on all of them.

Hope you have a fairly thick skin because you're liable to get some flaming responses from people who think that disagreeing with the government is traitorous and ought to be punishable (you know, kind of like it is in countries that aren't democracies).

Sadly, there are a lot of people out there who don't understand that the current administration has been at best incompetant and arrogant and at worst, immoral and deliberately dishonest with the American people.

Hopefully people have begun to realize that the current administration is not worthy of the position it holds - I think that's why there were such sweeping changes in the mid term elections and why Bush's ratings have plummeted. Pretty much all a Democrat had to do to make a good showing in the midterms was say "I'm not a Republican."

I'm the wife of a special forces soldier who has been away for 3 deployments and will probably end up going back again; he's a reservist and I don't think anyone can justifiably call them "weekend warriors" any more when they're deploying as much as active soldiers are. He loves the military but he thinks it's a crime to send soldiers to war without the proper equipment and to muzzle or ignore generals who have solid plans that disagree with civilians' ideas of how to fight a war and replace them with generals who are willing to go along with whatever the Defense Secretary says.

The current administration is relying on spin to try to salvage what they can from a horrible situation; how sad is it when we start to hear Orwellian double speak coming from our leaders.

And how sad is it when people to this day are positive that Iraq was behind 9-11 despite all the evidence that's come out to the contrary? I heard an interview with a soldier who said he took tapes of the towers falling on 9-11 to show his troops in Iraq so they'd understand why they were there. Except that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9-11. In fact, Hussein was an enemy of al-Qaida's.

Answer 4

I don't believe support of the troops has anything to do with non-support of the administration. I believe that is a false assumption on some peoples part. I believe the number of troops lost should not only be headline news, but also footage of them being killed should be shown. "wasted lives", in my opinion has nothing to do with Iraq or any other war. Fact is, any American life lost in war needlessly, is a "wasted life". America has the ability to completely annihilate any country without putting one soldier on the ground. The fact that politicians and the American people are too cowardly to do it, means any soldier killed is on the civilians' head not the enemy's head, and therefore a "wasted life"!

Answer 5

Sounds like you read my answer to that other question!

1.How can you support someone if you don't support what they are doing?I'm not saying you should condemn them,but,if you don't agree with what they're doing,that's not"support".I won't go into the fact that most unfiltered accounts I've seen of whats going on are far different than the main stream medias version.

2.Yes.The running death toll count is not for reasons of informing the public.It is a political statement by elements of the media saying see how many people have died?It is for the sole purpose of swaying public opinion.It's disrespectful as hell to me.

3.No life is "wasted" in the pursuit of freedom for the world.Don't disrespect these brave people by saying their lives were "wasted"

I honestly hope this helps explain my position.
Thank you for serving your country.God bless you.

Answer 6

I agree with you 100%, wholeheartedly.

I despise Bush's administration's decisions on this war. I emphatically do not support their policy on this war.

However, I wholeheartedly support our troops. I admire them for their work and bravery, pray for them, and cannot wait until they come home. It saddens me so, each time I hear of one dying, as I feel we should not have been there in the first place. My heart goes out to their families.

You see, it is just the conservatives' and Republicans' way of trying to turn everything around, in order to make the Democrats and Liberals look bad. I feel that 99.9% of the Democrats and Liberals support our troops, even though they don't believe they should be over there.

Really, the Conservatives are just politically nasty, rotten people. I am so thrilled that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate and the House, as they are the better people, and things are going to change around here, for the better!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

You're right. I don't support the Bush Adminstration, but fully support our troops...I wish them the best. It's ironic because Republicans criticize Democrats for not supporting the troops because they don't support the war when the Democrats wanted to raise the capital gains tax and create $40 billion and earmark it for the VA and the Iraq War and almost EVERY Republican voted against it and EVERY Democrat vote for it as a strong support for our troops. I guess supporting our troops means having a BUSH/CHENEY bumper sticker on your car, according to Republicans' logic.

Answer 8

As far as Afghanistan, there are several countries in their. It is being ran by NATO and not the US. In Iraq our motives are to help out a nation that wants Democracy. Can some of your venom be directed towards the killers that are blowing people up ? We cannot just pick up and leave knowing that the Iraqi people need our help. War is never a good option, but, it sometimes is the only option. The dictator in Iraq flipped off the UN by violating 17 resolutions. Just because the UN did not have the guts to stand up to Saddam does not mean the US should ignore it. It would be nice if the media showed some of the rest of Iraq. Most of that country is peaceful.

Answer 9

The Rovian propaganda machine spread the idea that "dissent means you hate the troops" early on, and the most extreme fanatical supporters just hooked onto it as Gospel Truth(tm). It's just another bullying tactic used by the radical ultra-right wing to cow people who can't think for themselves into falling into goose-step behind them. Ignore them, they are nothing but deluded little PNAC/AIPAC slaves, and will get what's coming to them.

stev: thank you for proving my point so eloquently. you don't even bother to debate any issues, you just drop straight to a personal attack and accuse him of being homosexual. you don't like the fact that people can disagree with your pResident? get the hell out of my country, you're welcome to move to Iran.

Answer 10

Most teenagers, who use a different part of the brain to analyze things than do adults,often believe that if you don't agree with their aspect of the situation,that YOU must be wrong, theres no way they accept responsibility for there faulty perception,and unfortunately that process does not leave (a few) simply with becoming older....EDIT: the following thumbs down should bolster that fact