On Supporting the Troops

Crossposted fromMY LEFT WING

"The troops" do not generally believe it when people say they "support the troops" but "hate what the troops are doing." They think that's bullshit. They think if you're going to support the troops, you have to support what they're doing, and since they're pretty sure there's no way in fucking hell you can possibly understand what they're doing -- since they themselves do not understand what they're doing -- they kinda sorta wish you'd just shut the fuck up.

Imagine this, please, people:

You are 25 now. You signed up back in 2000, at 18, for the usual reasons most young people do: college tuition, no idea what to do with your life, etc.

Then 9/11 happened, and Bush started beating the drums for his war; you were 19. You didn't know shit about politics. All you knew was, you were out for payback. That's what they told you, over and over.

You bought it. They hammered you with that propaganda, day and night, night and day, till you knew damned well Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and al Qaeda was based in Iraq and Iraq was a state sponsor of terrorism and we were going to go over there and kick some terrorist ass.

So the war started in 2003, coincidentally the month you turned 21; you shipped out before ever having a legal drink, without knowing if you'd ever have a legal drink...

And maybe by the time you got over there, you were already questioning this whole thing. Maybe you had internet access on base before you left for Iraq, maybe you'd explored the blogs...

But here you were, knee-deep in blood and sand and the shit, man, and there's just no time to QUESTION it when there's an IED exploding a foot away from your vehicle and another foot and maybe you'd be going home without a leg, like your buddy Dan or maybe like your buddy Joe who's never going to see again he lost his eyes...

You can't question it when you're walking or riding or up and doing whatever the fuck you're supposed to be doing that day; and why are you doing it? Was it WMDs? Or democracy? Or to stop a civil war? Shit, man, you don't know why you're here -- you just have to stay alive and intact one day at a time, one more ride out there on that road, the one where IEDs seem to grow like weeds...

It's a fucking nightmare, man. You know that expression, "War is hell?" You never really understand that until you're in it. There's blood everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere. ALMOST dead bodies. You want to put them out of their misery but then it's an execution. So you have to leave them there, dying, suffering, slowly, in agony -- it 's fucking awful.

And the kids, man. Dead kids. You can't imagine it -- dead kids, everywhere. Kids without arms, legs, eyes... Kids crying, everywhere you go, kids crying. Jesus, man, I don't think I'm ever gonna get that sound outta my head.

Noise. No such thing as quiet in the cities, the abandoned ones, anyway. Never. Gunfire all day all night, I don't know who they're shooting at anymore.

I don't know who we're shooting at anymore.

And I don't know why we're shooting anymore. I don't think I ever really did. I do know one thing, man -- I get out of here, I'm out of this uniform I ain't never coming back. Yeah, if I'd known, man... never would have joined. I'm not sayin' I'm a pacifist, I'm not anti-war or nothin'. But this... this shit, man -- why the fuck are we here, man? No WMDs, no democracy, ain't NO way we're ever gonna keep the peace here -- this is bullshit, man.

But am I gonna stop in the middle of a firefight and contemplate the MEANING of it all? FUCK no, man, I'm about to get my head blown off.

Oops. Not my head. Finally home... Takes a while to get used to things again. Everything looks so... clean. Don't much care for riding in cars. "Support the Troops" bumper stickers -- what's that mean? "Support the Troops -- Bring Them Home" -- that's nice, I guess.

Back online, back on the blogs. The politics are okay; not too many people get it right about Iraq, though. Figures. Go to an anti-war rally; jeans and a baseball cap, looking as incognito as I can, what with the chair and all... wonder what people'd say if I showed up in uniform -- would they yell at me? Nah -- got the chair. Start shaking my hand and thanking me and shit? Or maybe just ignore me, pretend I'm not there...

Someone invites me to a discussion group that meets after the rallies. I sit in the back and listen. Pretty soon one guy's yelling at another one, seems like they do this a lot...

• "Support the troops? Yeah,, right -- our troops -- just ordinary, everyday human beings... who kill people for money!"

• "Calling our troops killers and hired mercenaries is fucking BULLSHIT!"

• "Come ON. Troops are killers. That's what they do. It doesn't matter what side they are on. That's what the military is all about....DESTRUCTION....the weapons are used to DESTROY things."

• "They're there to do a job. They can't afford to stop in the middle of the desert and QUESTION it, asshole. They do that, they're DEAD."

• "Better they DIE than continue to participate in this slaughter of innocent Iraqis!"

You can't take it anymore. Part of you wants to wheel up there to the front of that room and confront both these idiots. But mostly what you want is to get the fuck out of there.

And you're thinking...

"Support the troops, huh. Best way to support the fuckin' troops is stop talking about supporting the fuckin' troops, and start trying to understand what's happening to the fuckin' troops. UNDERSTAND it, and shut the fuck UP about it. Get rid of the fuckin' bumper stickers, get rid of the "Support the Troops" signs you bring to marches and protests..."

MSOC here... Sorry about the confusing switches from first to third to second person and all that… Back to the general idea here:

Most important of all: Shut down any conversation where someone tries to bring that stupid fucking phrase into it.

Here's an idea, something to say:

"You just used an incendiary / inflammatory / provocative (take your pick) phrase that is essentially meaningless unless you understand what the troops are going through, so I'm not going to respond to that -- unless, of course, you can tell me you've done a tour of Iraq yourself?"