← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · edward gibbon
Thread ID: 20630 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2005-10-12
2005-10-12 23:02 | User Profile
The below article was published and I thought many would find it interesting.
[QUOTE][B][CENTER][SIZE=3]Please Donââ¬â¢t Support My Troop[/SIZE][/CENTER][/B]
By Michael Gaddy
10/12/05 "ICH" -- -- My son returned from Iraq last weekend after a yearââ¬â¢s service. I confess to breathing much easier now that he is out of that quagmire.
I have a personal request for all of you George W. Bush supporters and Christian warhawks: please do not support my troop. I have visions and aspirations of having him around, seeing him settle down and start a family at some point, and being near as I grow older. Your support would mean that he would be sent back to this war started and continued on lies to become a target for those who would rather live their lives without the interference of a foreign, empire-seeking, new-world-order, invader.
Actually, my son completed his contractual obligation to the military several months ago, but thanks to your support, he has been stop-lossed and has no idea when he will be allowed to resign his commission.
Why would I not want your support for my troop, you ask? Considering your support of our criminal government has led to the death, destruction and misery of millions of people on this planet, that is basically a no-brainer.
Of course you supported the troops back in WWII and thought that was a good thing, but somewhere along the line your support of the State led to the leaving behind of over 20,000 of our soldiers, those liberated from German POW camps by the Russians, never to be heard from again. Iââ¬â¢m sure those families appreciated your support.
Back in 1950, you supported my father as he left my mother and me to go to war in Korea. He never returned, giving his life somewhere in that foreign land. Because of the loss of my father, my mother put a vodka bottle to her head and pulled the trigger. Your wonderful support took both my parents. Thanks again!
Your continued support in Korea led to the abandonment of over 8,000 POWââ¬â¢s and MIAââ¬â¢s to the enemy. Do you wonder why many find your support lacking? Just ask the families of those who have been left behind by this government you support blindly.
Some of you supported us as we went to the jungles of Southeast Asia; some chose not to. The results were the same; with or without your support, our criminal government cares nothing for those in uniform! Those of you who supported us claimed that those who didnââ¬â¢t were responsible for us losing the war. Horse Apples! We lost that war for the same reason we will lose the one in Iraq: wars started on lies to increase the bottom line of campaign contributors are seldom won because the war must be extended for as long as possible to insure the corporatocracy gets a full return on its money. There is a black granite wall in DC so all of you warhawks can go there and read the names of the 58,000+ charred souls you killed with your support. Just exactly where did that get us? Does Vietnam have a "democracy" today? Your continued support for a corrupt government led to over 2,000 military personnel being left behind in that war; with grieving families never knowing what happened to their loved ones.
Your support in Beirut cost the lives of hundreds of Marines and Soldiers as people who wanted us to hell out of their country destroyed our soldiers' poorly protected barracks. Please give me the upside to this loss. Is Lebanon better off today because those good soldiers gave their lives?
I can still see the faces of the young Army Rangers that were killed in the illegal invasion of Panama. With your support, they gave their lives to assist in serving a drug warrant on a foreign Head of State, one our government had supported for years. Is it not ironic that we later went to war with Iraq for doing to Kuwait the same thing you supported our soldiers doing to Panama?
Your wonderful support led to the unspeakable horrors inflicted on those soldiers who were in Somalia! You should be especially proud of that one. Those dead soldiers dragged through the streets would not have been there had it not been for your "support." If you have trouble remembering this, some time spent with the book Black Hawk Down should jog your memory.
Only in a true Orwellian society could citizens send off poorly trained and equipped soldiers, serving in a politically correct military, led by a civilian leadership that has spent the majority of their adult lives in a revolving door between the military industrial complex and government service, and call the damn thing, "supporting the troops."
Why do we call people who prefer to live their lives without having their land bombed, their women, children and old folks killed, their national infrastructure destroyed and foreign soldiers on their soil, terrorists? Have you ever wondered what word the American Indian had for the U.S. government back in the middle to late 19th Century? History tells us we referred to them as "savages" and "those Red Devils" because they fought and died for their land and their culture. What did our ancestors call the British who were doing to the colonists precisely what our government does to others today?
Time to come clean, America: you do not in any way support troops by sending them to die for Halliburton and Bechtelââ¬â¢s bottom line. This is analogous to sending your teenager out in a car with no brakes and bald tires, accompanied by a child rapist high on crystal meth, and calling that "supporting" your children.
Rush Limbaugh was actually right for a change: there can be no support for the troops without supporting the war and the government that sent them there. Your misplaced support for the troops is actually support for a criminal enterprise in which the military serves as the enforcement arm of that enterprise. If you want to support the troops, do not allow the State to send them to their deaths for corporate profits in wars sired by lies!
Michael Gaddy, mgnc46@yahoo.com is an U.S. Army veteran of Vietnam, Grenada, and Beirut, lives in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest.[/QUOTE]Do you detect any bitterness?
2005-10-13 00:50 | User Profile
Outstanding letter. It needs to be spread around all the neocon sites on the Net. Of course most of the sheep there would dismiss it as "liberalism," but it could still do some good.
The only way to "support the troops" in Iraq is to bring them home. A lot of neocon talking heads will say that talk about a pullout will "hurt the troops' morale," but which is more important: troops' morale, or their lives?
The mission in Iraq is not important; in fact, it's counterproductive to US security. Telling that to soldiers on the ground might indeed harm their morale, but if I were in their shoes I'd rather know the hard truth than soft lies.
2005-10-13 01:56 | User Profile
Angler,
It is a good column despite my disagreement with him about Limbaugh. Limbaugh 's "support" is only in the sense they benefit the Neocons and his bank account.
I wish I could post this on "Free" Republic. It would be tantamount to throwing a grenade into a crowded room and slamming the door shut on them.
2005-10-13 03:47 | User Profile
This letter is interesting only in that it shows how late this man woke up. If he had all this contempt for the military being used for policy, and badly at that, how is it he encouraged his son to earn a comission? How did he not steer the lad to another career?
A good friend of mine just retired from the military, and he is similarly disgusted at the political leadership. He advised his son to withdraw his service academy applications and is redoing his budget to get the young man into a normal university.
Sounds like someone woke up late, and is mad at having been duped.
I certainly understand the feeling, having had misgivings about Iraq since long before its commencement, and since it does not fit the old Weinberger Doctrine six point test (which is a pretty good guideline, in my opinion) in terms of use of US Military.
The man makes a profound error, as does Rush. Supporting the troops does not make one a warhawk. The people who support the troops can make the modestly demanding mental leap and understand that an honorable man, typical troop, honors his commitment freely given. The All Volunteer force does just that.
The issue at hand is: can you support the troops and hold the political leadership as having failed to uphold their Constitutional charge? Yes. You can support the troops and, for example, vote against Bush (quite a few in uniform did that in 2004, I know a bunch) or petition for a change in policy, et cetera.
[QUOTE=Angler] The mission in Iraq is not important; in fact, it's counterproductive to US security. Telling that to soldiers on the ground might indeed harm their morale, but if I were in their shoes I'd rather know the hard truth than soft lies.[/QUOTE]It is indeed counterproductive to long term US Security interests. That said, the getting out process is not something to be blithely undertaken. It needs to be a phased pull out, an orderly pull out.
No matter how one slices it, Iraq will end up badly off for our having gone in their and broken up the status quo, under a plan based on an illusion of tractable little Iraqis adapting a form of government with which none of them had ever had experience. I still predict it fractures when we leave, into at least three parts. Iran wins, any way you look at it.
I'll offer, Angler, that based on the bleak briefs I saw last year, similar to briefs John Paul Vann was sending back to DC in 63 during early Viet Nam days -- he was ignored also -- the Marines and Soldiers on the ground know good and well that their mission is a turd that can barely be polished, one that will never be shiney. They make it look as good as they can, since that's what they do.
Their longer term reaction over the next few years could get rather ugly.
AE
2005-10-13 13:07 | User Profile
[QUOTE=edward gibbon]Do you detect any bitterness?[/QUOTE]
Bitterness? Righteous bitterness, I'd call it. Especially at the current quagmire of America's debacle of destruction in Iraq, where the warmonger jews, politicians, and chickenhawk talking heads who never, ever, even seen a real hot firefight, are the ones demanding to "stay the course".
I'd be bitter too.
2005-10-13 13:22 | User Profile
"What you cannot enforce, do not command."
Screw giving the Iraqis a extended hand over period. We should withdraw from Iraq.
It is well known that those who call for wars (ZOG & Co) are seldom the ones charged with prosecuting them and the safety of our troops is clearly far less of a concern to them than losing face.
These cockroaches are in no way shape or form fit to govern.
Greg
"All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established." - Aristotle
2005-10-13 13:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Their longer term reaction over the next few years could get rather ugly.[QUOTE] AE,
I certainly hope so in the sense that some of these folks eventually replace the present crop of "leaders" and those halfwits that they are grooming to suceed them that we are cursed with today. I put a lot of faith in the field and company graders, along with most of the NCOs. They would be excellent reinforcements for the corrupt political process we have today.