Supporting Our Troops

A plague on modern political discourse is the fear of appearing as if one does not "support the troops". Every politician, political blogger, media pundit seems to say "I support our troops!". This is particularily prevalent in the US but recently with the increased danger our soldiers are facing in Afghanistan it is spreading up here too.

To all you troop-supporting talking heads: get your head out of your ass.

Only the fringe actually don't support the soldiers putting their lives on the line for their job and duty to their country. Everyone else wants our men and women in the military to succeed and come home alive.

Questioning the wisdom of going into Iraq or Afghanistan should be acceptable and should have no question of loyalty or patriotism. To do otherwise is to turn a rational opposition to an action into a us-versus-them duality that is overly simplistic and disingenuous.

I'm not sure we are doing what needs to be done for Afghanistan. I'm not convinced we are helping the country moved towards a democracy. I'm on the fence about whether or not we should pull out. I want to see from our political leaders reasons for staying or going.