"I am behind the troops, but.." = "I am not racist, but..."

[Solly]

I noticed Barley make a long-winded criticism of the actions our troops are bravely performing to free a nation. Fair enough, have that point of view, but don't try and fool us into thinking you are genuinely supportive of our troops. Our troops know support when they hear it - not when you hear someone ranting off, but inanely finishing off their little piece with "but I support the troops!". This isn't meant to get at Barley, a lot of people have done it recently and it's ridiculous.

If you're behind the troops, you'd support what theyw ere trying to achieve out there.

[spartak]

Yawn. Another reactionry thready from Bodds.

How lame.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Thread summary - "My country, right or wrong".

The battlecry of all good little drones.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Re: "I am behind the troops, but.." = "I am not racist, but..."

Originally posted by Boddington's
If you're behind the troops, you'd support what theyw ere trying to achieve out there.

Even though this blather should not be dignified with an intelligent response, I'll offer one:

Supporting the troop is not the same as supporting the policies of the politicians who have sent them to do their duty. Many of us are critical of the action in Iraq because it seems increasingly unjustified AND very, very ill-planned. Neither the justification nor the planning has anything to do with the troops; it's the work of politicians and, in the US anyway, many of the top-ranking military leaders actually objected to the White House's specific plans for the invasion. The White House underestimated the resistance to US/UK occupation; it consequently underestimated the number of troops needed for the job. Beyond that, it is not the practice of the US military to train troops in peacekeeping/policing functions, yet those are exactly the functions the White House would have them perform. Small wonder that more have died in the "peace" than in the war.

In short: the troops are the victims of arrogant, short-sighted politicians. I think your assertion needs to be turned on its head: if anything, it seems to me impossible to support the troops and the Iraq debacle at the same time. You could support the troops -- and urge their withdrawal. You could support the troops -- and urge that adequate additional troops, properly trained for the task, be dispatched immediately. But to support the troops AND support a situation in which they're being killed because politicians have planned ineptly and refuse to admit or correct their mistakes -- well, that's just sadistic.

Edit: BTW, It occurs to me that "I'm not racist, but..." is a sentiment I've heard you express on a wide variety of threads. So is this about getting us to support the war, or support your racism? Just wondering.

[Zero]

People just blurt out "i support the troops" cause it became not PC to be agst the troops. So when ppl are agst the war they have to retardedly say they support the troops.

This post reaction to Vietnam is getting ridiculous.

[MikeH]

It's probably something to do with this ridiculous idea that Bush and co have put out that not supporting the government/war is unpatriotic.

[Chemical Ollie]

Why support the troops if you oppose the war? They volonteered, despite knowing they might be sent to some place where they shouldn't be, didn't they?

[Dinner]

What occured after the end of the Vietnam war was totally wrong. I don't ever want to see "peace activists" spitting on and beating up draftees ever again.

[MikeH]

No wonder you lost if the hippy peace activists could beat up the soldiers.

[Dinner]

We actually won every battle against the NVA and the south didn't fall until two years after the last American combat troops had left.

[Zero]

Originally posted by Oerdin
What occured after the end of the Vietnam war was totally wrong. I don't ever want to see "peace activists" spitting on and beating up draftees ever again.

i agree that it was terrible. But this whole fear of being too agst the troops has gone to a point of being too afraid of racism and doing Affirmative action.

[Chemical Ollie]

Spitting on draftees in Vietnam was idiotic, but supporting volonteers in a war you oppose is almost as stupid.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Oerdin
We actually won every battle against the NVA and the south didn't fall until two years after the last American combat troops had left.

I should label all my posts "lame troll/joke"

[Zero]

don worry MikeH, I thought ur post was funny

whether or not it was correct or not

[Dinner]

Yeah, it was funny.