View Single Post
Old 01-30-2007, 11:54 AM   #1 (permalink)
boatin
Psycho
 
"support our troops" offensive to troops?

So I'm surrounded by family that deliver two lines to me on a regular basis:
  • support our troops
  • support the office of the president

As the only liberal leaning person in the family, I get those statements in response to my peace-sign and my "is it 2008, yet?" bumper stickers. As I don't (EVER) bring up these conversations, the frequency with which I'm bombarded with those two statements makes me nuts. With the article I just found and posted about the pentagon, I've just boiled over. So I bring my complaints here.

Please consider that 'deep background' to my real question.


It seems to me that the line "support our troops" is used to mean "support our administration's decisions about the troops". Really, who DOESN'T support the troops? I think the closest argument one could make for who doesn't support our troops is whatever administration doesn't fund veteran services. I suspect there are threads to that affect already in politics.

I was listening to a Springsteen song called "Brothers Under the Bridge" (last song on disc 4 of "tracks") which has some heartbreaking lyrics:

Quote:
Saigon, it was all gone
The same Coke machines
As the streets I grew on
Down in a mesquite canyon
We come walking along the ridge
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Campsite's an hour's walk from the nearest road to town
Up here there's too much brush and canyon
For the CHP choppers to touch down
Ain't lookin' for nothin', just wanna live
Me and the brothers under the bridge
Come the Santa Ana's, man, that dry brush'll light
Billy Devon got burned up in his own campfire one winter night
We buried his body in the white stone high up along the ridge
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Had enough of town and the street life
Over nothing you end up on the wrong end of someone's knife
Now I don't want no trouble
And I ain't got none to give
Me and the brothers under the bridge

I come home in '72
You were just a beautiul light
In your mama's dark eyes of blue
I stood down on the tarmac, I was just a kid
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Come Veterans' Day I sat in the stands in my dress blues
I held your mother's hand
When they passed with the red, white and blue
So I started to wonder if all this "support our troops" business was offensive to actual troops. Particularly the ones from Vietnam. I was a bit too young for Vietnam, but it seems like it would piss me off to hear/see that line and know that it was being used as a political slogan and that more troops were going to come home and get the shaft for the rest of their lives, too.

Any chance that makes any sense?
boatin is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360