May 4, 2003
Support? What Support?
I see an awful lot of these "Support Our Troops" signs around these days. There is quite an industry producing these things, probably owned by some friends of GW Bush. I see people aggressively flaunting these things, like -- "You got a problem with this, scumbag?" And a lot of people display it fearfully, like -- "I'm a good guy. I'm on your side. Don't hurt me." The message is usually the very simplistic message that if you oppose Bush's latest war, you don't "support the troops."This is so ridiculous, such an obvious manipulation, so transparently illogical it should not have to be discussed. But such is the environment we are in that people have certain things hammered into them till they can barely think at all, certainly not enough to see through the slick propaganda.
I just want to say to people, "What do you mean, support? What are you talking about?" Sending them off to put their lives on the line to build some rich man's empire. That's what you call support?
I'm not thinking of the rich men, they have George W. Bush to look out for them. I'm thinking of the enlisted men and women who have to go through hell for a $20,000-a-year salary to fuel George W.'s war -- for what?
That is not support. That is at best a profound misunderstanding of what is going on. At its worst it is an ugly lie.