When I examine the discourse surrounding our involvement in foreign conflicts, I’m often left wondering when people really stopped thinking for themselves.
I wrote about this topic to a point last year when I talked about the idolatry of the military in our society and at the time, I secretly feared that I had gone too far in writing what I wrote. But I fear I didn’t go far enough.
The following statement will offend many readers; an offense that is regrettable, but one for which I refuse to apologize: I do not support the troops.
This does not mean I wish them ill, this does not mean I am not in favor of helping them in any way we can once they return and this certainly doesn’t mean I don’t sympathize with the loved ones of fallen soldiers, but my conscience as the citizen of a supposedly freedom-loving nation can no longer abide by the conflict in which they are taking part.
While I do not resent any singular soldiers or members of the military, supporting them in their every endeavor, no matter how flagrantly justified or unjustified becomes a litmus test for every American citizen when they are asked “Do you support the troops?” Answering “No” in our society seems tantamount to treason these days, but I’m willing to bet I’m far from the only one who feels this way.
Many say, “I support the troops, but I don’t support the war.”
While this is an admirable and certainly well-meaning distinction, I think it is ultimately a misguided one. How can we support the troops if we don’t support what they’re doing? How can we call every single soldier a hero when some of them end up committing war crimes? This does not make their choice more or less admirable than any other, but I refuse to be made to feel guilty for not supporting them in an unjust war that I did not ask them to fight.
My point is this: The military has been an all-volunteer force for some time now and not since Vietnam have young Americans been forced to either go fight a war they may not believe in or duck the draft and be called a coward and a traitor. I understand that many of that era, including the veterans in my family felt they had no choice in the matter, but today this is not the case.
We all have choices in life, and no one forced these young men and women to take up arms, nor were they coerced; they did so of their own volition. I’ve heard many people contend that they’re defending our freedoms. I also think this is untrue. How do the deaths of young Americans in the Middle East make you and me freer? If anything, the threat of terrorism has led many Americans to turn a blind eye to constitutional blights such as the Patriot Act and the continued use of Guantanamo Bay — a threat whose members are all the more enraged and emboldened by our continued presence in their countries. In other words, the war they are fighting to protects our freedoms, yet the threat of the enemy they are fighting is used to justify taking our freedoms and civil liberties away? This is a blatant paradox.
We the people must not support the troops or the government in any unjustified conflicts, for if we do, we are consenting to the oppression of other people as well as resigning ourselves to the herd conformity of nationalism. Next time you see military members lauded at sporting events or in commercials, think what you are really supporting by saying “I support the troops,” because if the powers that be see that we will support any war, what then will stop them from doing as they wish if we the people are too scared or ashamed to voice dissent?
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