How do you support the troops without supporting the war?

Question

I'm in the military and have done some time overseas. I don't understand those people who say they support me, but then say they feel sorry for me that i have to follow the orders of our current president; and they "support the troops, but not the war." How is this possible? How can you support me without supporting my cause.

Answer 1

It's not possible. How can you support the troops by refusing to send reinforcements, supplies, and giving the people who are trying to kill our troops the only thing that keeps them going. The hope that we will quit. Without that hope the war would already be over.

It's beyond stupidity to come up with such as comment as "I support the troops but not the war." The fastest way to end the war is to win it, and the fastest way to win it, is to leave the enemy no doubt that we will stay until the job is done and they can either quit or be killed.

Answer 2

It's not support or lack of support for either the war or the troops, that kind of talk is political rhetoric, all Americans support our vets, at least with words. It's each individual protester's personal rejection of the horror of seeing a 19 year old quadruple amputee or a grieving group of pre school children being consoled by a young widow. Any reasonable person will instinctually feel the need to stop such tragedy. It's deeper that just moral outrage. They feel not putting our troops in harms way "is" supporting the troops. They don't understand that their is no safe place yet, and that the battlefield could very well come to them, if we don't go to the battle field. Any reasonable person wants to end something that makes them feel that way. They can't end the war or the insecurity it brings to them so they protest their own inability to effect the situation by protesting the war or those running it. Psychological pain is as real as physical. Nobody wants to see soldiers coming home in body bags. The emotions generated from such events effect protesters on a personal level and force them to do what they do even if that action seems ineffective or illogical. Their motives aren't totally because of moral outrage at a social injustice, there is a psychological and personnel reason for the behavior as well. They don't like the feelings the media images generate in them, so they try and make themselves feel better by protesting what is out of their conrol.

Answer 3

What is so hard about that? Just bc we love our military men & women and care about them doesn't necessarily mean we agree with this mis-administration. *Many of us feel the military has been used & abused for corporate profiteering.

It's similar to if you have a loved one that makes a mistake, you love that person still - but you don't agree with a choice he/she made. That's how we related it to the current govt. situation. We love our country and are distressed at the ongoing events.

Our family has supported the military in various ways. We always donate to the Vietnam Veterans and have sent lots of packages to service people via various sites.

The Russian & Chinese military are not running all over the planet trying to manage it. Neither should we, it's a waste of resources unless we have plenty of help from other countries. It would take a collective effort and that seems to be unraveling. Right now it could be that we're just softening up the area for other larger armies to come in some day. Strategically stupid is what I call this! I'm not a peace nut & have no problem with war when justified, but when I saw the Republicans coming down the line again, I knew exactly what was going to occur - it's so typical of them...they're self-serving.

Check out War Profiteers and Alternet.org

Answer 4

It is possible in that you are serving your master as a GI ( government issue). It is not your cause regardless of what the talking heads tell you. You have no choice but to follow his orders or be branded a coward, be drummed out of the armed forces and be imprisoned. You and your fellow soldiers will do as you told even in the face of incontravertible proof that what you are ordered to do is incorrect. What the majority of people say when they say they do not support the war they are referring to the Iraq war. The Iraq war was not to stop terrorism or to find WMD, it was to go to war based on a lie. The reasoning behind it has shifted like the sands in the Sahara. Now the war in Afghanistan, the US people still support because they know that Afghanistan provided shelter to Al Qaeda, Iraq did not. The terrorists were trained in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the attack on us. In the run up to the Iraq war, President Bush and his Cabinet did nothing but link 9/11 and Iraq together that at the time the US invaded over 74% of the US population thought that the terrorists were Iraqis.
Since the invasion and occupation, along came the Downing Street memo which highlighted that President Bush wanted regime change and would try to come up with any excuse he could to justify the invasion.
Last year, President Bush finally acknowledged that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 but by that time, the insurgency was in full swing, the levels of corruption in terms of government contracts came out such as Halliburton billing the US Army $45 for a 6 pk of Pepsi. The daily bombings and US troop deaths based on what seems to be a solid lie has " cheesed" off a lot of Americans to put it nicely
SO WE SUPPORT YOUR SACRIFICE BUT WOULD LIKE ALL OF OUR MEN AND WOMEN TO COME HOME SAFELY AND NOT IN BODY BAGS AND MISSING LIMBS BECAUSE OF A LIE. I was a young child when the Vietnam war ended but I heard the horror stories of what happened to the troops when they came back. They too went to war based on a lie. They just followed orders. That type of treatment should never be meted out to our troops ever again.

Answer 5

Thats so easy to answer. I support all our troops and pray that they will be safe and return home. I don't support the reason they are there but I would never do to them as was done to me when I returned from Nam. People spit on me and called me a child killer. Yes, I do support all our troops and I will until this war is over. I beleive they should have everything they need to win. I do not beleive they were put in harms way for a worthy cause. Saddam was not the one who planed 9/11. He didn't even know about it.

Answer 6

Because people get there information from the media and don't understand that you see all of the autrocities done over there by the insurgients and don't get it that you know that what you're fighting for is to stop it.

It's not very often that it's passed on the the public what good comes out of you missions, just what blew up and how many were killed. I don't support the Congress and president because their inability to put their finger pointing and animocities aside long enough to give you guys what you need to successfully complete your mission.

What happened to the troops coming home from Vietnam was terrible and people recognize that. They just don't get they can't support you fully by speaking out against what you're doing and that it comes back to you guys and your morale.

My boyfriend is over there right now and I support him and you and all of our troops over there and everything you're working to accomplish 100%

Answer 7

if you have ever been in the service you all ready know the answer, however support of our troops is the best thing you can do right now no matter what the cause is weather you believe or not you are not sitting in the rain or heat and getting fired at. if you have ever had a rifle fired at you and had rounds scream by you and shells falling every second , support our troops know matter what.

Answer 8

Yes it is possible to support the troops by speaking for them not to kill and be killed. The war in Iraq is aggression rather than war as Iraq did not start the war against US/UK. To add to that many believe that it may be an illegal war thats why supporting troops to return is important.

Answer 9

We are the citizens of the US! Your CinC may have sent you in harms way, but we ultimately, at some point, make a decision regarding the troops. You will have a new CinC soon, as you already have a Congress and Senate who is opposed to the war!

When we found out we were duped by Bush, and have had daily troop deaths for over 4 years, which is longer than World War II! We need to finalize it in some manner. We can't take troop loses everyday forever!

We are required to oppose those who use OUR troops in a manner that the should not have been used in!

I fought in Vietnam, I know what it is like to be hated! You are not hated, you are more supported by us, the ones that want this conflict over!

We do more than the other side, who thinks patriotism is to spend $4.95 for a Chinese made yellow sticker!

We, and I use our ballots, and our voices, to change what has been going on. We are in a civil war, not one against anyone who had something to do with 9/11!

I opposed Bush's trying to cut your combat pay.

I opposed Bush cutting widows benefits in 1/2!

I opposed Bush when he cut 100 BILLION out of the Veterans Hospitals, they very ones that many of you will end up in! I didn't hear any who you think are on your side raise one finger to stop it! Bush then turned around and gave the rich a tax cut!

We have gotten changed them charging you for meals after you were wounded and discharged from Walter Reed.

We have changed them from charging you for a $600,00 Personal Protection Jacket after they had to be cut off because you were wounded, like they were doing at ft. Hood.

We got you better equipment and more armored humvees!

We are unwilling to let you die for nothing!

Do you really think Bush is on you side? With his intel, that he forgot to share with Congress or the people, we had no reason to put you in harms way!

I spent my last year after Vietnam on a burial detail out of Ft Devens, Mass! I know what that war did to families on a very personal level. One war over a lie is too much! There was no reason for this one!

I hope you get that we can support you, though we want your mission changed, and we are going to have it changed! You can take that to the bank!

The person who was doing the talking in the below is this man, a man I met when he was in the 101st Airborne. He was a Brigade commander!

What saddens me the most is someone will be the last body bag out of Iraq!

PS: George Bush just proposed another 10% cut for veterans!! But he has a tax cut for the wealthy in his budget!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget_veterans;_ylt=AoUgEXYKyqoLZFNWSqyDgzhp24cA

Answer 10

Do not doubt for a second the sincerity of those that say they support the troops for I hear them every single day speaking of the respect and admiration that they sincerely hold for the men and women in uniform !! But, at the same time a lot of these people see the war in Iraq as being one based on false premise and one that is putting the country at major risk of loosing a great deal of respect from the world at large as well as great financial risk in the way our government has choosen to dump billions into the "rebuilding" of Iraq while so much of our own infrastructure is beginning to deteriorate ! Many of them see this war as putting the lives OF our service men and women at unwarranted risk for a circumstance that is at best a draw in terms of what can be gained by it all !!
Talk about support and nonsupport--- Dude, I was up to my whazoo in Vietnam --- now talk to ME about the confusion in who was supporting what at THAT time---as a serviceman at that era--people actually blamed US for the situation in Southeast Asia a lot of the time--- and we still had people that told us regularly that they didn't agree with the war --- but they thought the world of us for being in the breech OF the thing !! I fully understand it all now, but at the time, like you now, had a very hard time "getting it"

Trust me here, it is sincere---a major portion of this country love you guys--- truly love you guys-- with a deep, brotherly love that transends policies and strategies and tactics----but we don't HAVE to love those policies and strategies and tactics that place you---and this country's balance at risk unnecassarily !!!