In the LA Times, Joel Stein admits:
I don't support our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.
I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.
...
But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward....
I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn't so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it's really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I'm listed in the phone book.
I'm not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea. All I'm asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.
2 comments:
I appreciate Stein's comments because I believe he is being more honest than most Dems and others on the Left. They believe the troops are as guilty as the president and that's why they feel justified in undermining the war effort and encouraging the enemy.
You've probably heard, they loathe the military.
As you might surmise from the tone of the rest of my blog, I disagree that "the Left" is as insidiously motivated as you suggest. I appreciated Stein's comments as well (there aren't many who have argued, humorously or not, that the members of the military should be credited at least with having the acuity to realize what it is that they're doing), though I would stop short of endorsing his thesis. There are those in the military, certainly, who signed up after making a conscious choice to act as "a fighting tool of American imperialism." But there are also plenty of people in the military who signed up for other reasons: to pay for college, to learn a trade, or simply because the steel mill in their hometown closed and their options were limited.
I don't think the left loathes the military (though there are certainly those who do). But I agree that the left tends to approach the exercise of military power from a different angle than many of those on the right. For many on the left (and I include myself in this group), the burden of proof, so to speak, lies with the military (or the administration that commands it) to justify its use. There's a rebuttable presumption of sorts that military force should be avoided if at all possible; when it's necessary, it's necessary, and I can respect that. But I'm unwilling to support the military based solely on the fact that it's the military.
I'd imagine you and I disagree on that.
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