Somewhere along the way of noticing the ubiquity of "Support Our Troops" vehicle decals, I lost interest in keeping track of our troops killed in the Iraqi and Afghani conflicts. One of the reasons was because it pissed me off too much to see these tacky efforts at jingoistic backing of our sanctioned killers lauded as heroes. I jest, most of them are not murderers. I mean, you're trained to kill in bootcamp, you can be ordered to pick up a weapon and fire at an enemy, and the military involves destroying targets, but the majority are not frontline troops. They're just the instigators. Much like an Oscar acceptance speech, without their support, this could not occur.
I, like a majority of Americans, do not support the war in Iraq. But surely, this doesn't mean you cannot support the troops, right? War needs manpower. Manpower qualifies as our troops. Therefore, war cannot occur without our troops. Want to stop the war? Don't support the troops. But surely you can't mean that? I don't. "Support our troops," is such a subtle phrase that it should merit its own think-tank. A savvy sign I once read, "Support our troops -- bring them home now. Well, that works, for the opposite effect intended
They fought for your right to say that! Two things:
Support our troops. According to iCasualties.org, the reported number of deaths of US troops is 4,141. We could expect the average American to estimate it to 4,000. But the Iraqi deaths, it is not mentioned to a common person enough, or at all, to extract an estimate. Are Iraqi lives worth less to the common American because they don't have the backing of tacky magnets? According to IraqBodyCount.org, the very conservative estimate is 86,609 deaths due to violence. So approximately 21 Iraqis are worth one American military personnel's life. Of course, there are more Iraqi deaths directly related to the war, there are a shiteload more wounded, and there are millions of refugees.
Iraqis are killing our troops! And they have the right to, according to the UN. If you don't believe in this, don't visit France, a country which had its own insurgency against Nazi rule during World War II. And if truly brave enough, say it to a French citizen's face. Only until America is invaded will we learn the right to self-defense. Hell, the BBC reported in 2004, that Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General, said the US invasion of Iraq was illegal and contravened the UN charter. For the unfortunate souls that enlisted prior to the lead-up to war, there are more that enlisted after, voluntarily.
We must uphold democracy! Bull-f'ing-sh**. Seventy-one percent of Iraqis want us out, according to a poll reported by the Washington Post.
Perhaps First Lieutenant Ehren Watada got the message. He, and other marines, soldiers, and general military personnel filed for conscientious objector status, in spite of the possibility of jail time. These are the types of people I support; those who put their moral obligations higher than an illegitimate order. They know there are wrong times for battle, and follow through with it.
They aren't loyal. They are disobeying an order. There is something called command responsibility. An unlawful order does not have to be followed. In the chain-of-command, our current president is on the top. While he might not bear the same responsibility as the person pulling the trigger, "I was ordered to torture the prisoner," is not a viable excuse.
So are you saying that Iraqis are right and Americans are wrong? I'm saying that instead of going Johnny Appleseed with yellow swastikas or marching for peace which solves nothing but giving fat Americans some much needed exercise and a fake aura of self-righteousness, do something worthwhile, like thinking how complacent you would be if foreign troops patrolled the Buena Park Mall. Okay, perhaps something more important than the Buena Park Mall.
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