EPTBut why lower myself to the status of a 'radio-caller' when I can vent aimlessly on a StarCraft forum?
To me, the 'Support Our Troops' message in Canada comes across as a blanket attempt to discredit opponents to the operation in Afghanistan as being 'Against The Troops'.
The majority of people perpetuating the 'Support Out Troops' movement *are* supporters of the Afghan war (if we call it that). They advocate the image of our troops as our neighbors, our friends, our brothers and sisters. They describe the support as being equal to the desire to see them safe and successful. Well, if this is how we define support, then wouldn't the best way to 'support' our troops be to bring them home?
Well, I don't suppose that notion would fly with those supporting the Afghanistan operation, would it?
My own views on the war aside, I tend to typically view soldiers as ordinary Canadians doing a job. Is their job dangerous? Obviously, Is their job patriotic? No doubt. But it's a career they have chosen and have done so for their own reasons. We are not living in the days of the draft where Canadians are plucked from their homes and thrown in uniform - we are living in the day where people who *want* to be soldiers go and *be* soldiers. To create the notion that all people joining the military are doing so out of unselfish love of land and country is no different that creating the idea that all people who join the military are doing so because they "like to blow stuff up".
This is why the 'Support Our Troops' movement also feels like a double standard. Next time someone is protesting a residential expansion into the river valley, perhaps we should stage a 'Support Our Workers' protest - afterall, these construction workers are simply ordinary Canadians caught in the crossfire. You may not support river valley development, but you *should* support our workers...
But 'Supporting The Troops' gives pro-war men and women the ability to pat each other on the back and feel self-righteous about something. And who doesn't enjoy that? Though if I were politicizing the military in order to sell a mission that is killing the Canadian troops I am supposed to support, I might not be of mind to feel good about anything.
/rant
