Are You a Troop Supporter?

Apparently - at least according to the supporters of the Bush administration and its nefarious policies - one cannot support the troops AND want to bring them home. It simply cannot be that way. On the contrary, wanting to bring the troops home simply aids and abets the enemy. It undermines troop morale for U.S. citizens to want them to come home safely and unharmed. If you don't support the war, you're getting troops killed. You must support the war at all costs, regardless of ideology...or mere common sense.

To that I say: BULLSHIT!

Did President Bush support the troops by saying, "Bring it on!", to the insurgents?

Did Donald Rumsfeld support the troops by neglecting to plan adequately for necessary troop levels?

Did the Pentagon support the troops by sending them into battle with insufficient armor for their sitting duck vehicles?

Did the Bush administration support the troops by reducing benefits to those wounded in action and to vets returning home from war?

Did the administration support the troops by allowing and encouraging them to violate the Geneva Conventions, thereby enhancing the animosity towards them and increasing the probability that captured U.S. troops will be subjected to inhumane treatment and torture?

This administration CLEARLY has shown a blatant and consistent disregard for our troops. They have, as I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, chosen to sacrifice a precious gift - namely, our volunteer soldiers - for no good reason by sending them to fight an unnecessary war. They let the troops down. They let America down. They let the world down.

Do I want the troops to stay in Iraq and continue to be mowed down by car bomb after car bomb after car bomb? No. I want them to come home safely. That is called SUPPORTING THE TROOPS. And every additional soldier who continues to die in this war is being sold down the river by its own government. Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise to any of us, given what the administration is willing to do to its own covert agents. But that's another story.

Support the troops. Bring them home. That's the bottom line.