Posted on 04/02/2003 8:16:37 AM PST by yonif
Sure you can ... depending on who's troops you're supporting ...
Most troops oppose war.
Can you, love a sinner but hate the sin?
If you support the Troops, you support their mission!
Saying you are against the war but support our troops is, fundamentally, intellectually dishonest.
The way to catch them in their dishonesty is to ask the protestor "what is the job of the military."
One of three answers, IMO, is likely:
1. To make war;
2. To protect the country;
3. To provide humanitarian relief.
If the third answer is given, then you are dealing with a hopelessly brainwashed leftist moron who fails to draw any distinction between UN relief workers holding a bucket of grain and a soldier holding an M-16. Certainly, the individual believes the main purpose of the M-16 is to serve as the upright stake for a scarecrow in a field of grain.
If the second answer is given, they are hedging, because they know the first answer is correct, and they just don't want to go there. It would probably be necessary to lead them through a series of questions with the aim of getting them to either devolve to choice 1 or 3.
If the first answer is given, then they are sunk. If they understand the purpose of the military is to fight and win wars, then by opposing the war they are opposing the very function the troops are there to perform.
But suppose they insist the third answer is correct. Then, since they don't understand the purpose of the military, how can they possibly purport to support the people in the organization--"the troops"? It is simply a logical impossibility to support the troops without supporting what they do. To do otherwise is to invalidate these people as individuals.
Thus, if a protestor says they support the troops but don't support the war, they do not even have the strength of their convictions to admit they really support neither. If they are at least going to protest the war, they should have the moral fortitude to be intellectually honest.
But that's just my opinion.
The anti-war opposition should just say "we wish the Troops well".
sw
If you support the troops, you want the US to win.
If you want the Iraqis to win, you must be hoping for a lot of American troops to be killed.
"Who do you want to win?"
"Love the murderer, but hate the murder?"
"Love the rapist, but hate the rape?"
Mr.Pink ... please explain how you can support troops that are carrying out a mission that you believe to be immoral, illegal, or for whatever reason you oppose the mission? It might .. just might, perhaps .. be logical if these troops were drafted into the military and forced to perform the mission upon threat of death or grievous bodily harm. These are volunteers; most, if not all, are performing the mission because they believe in it. The remainder are performing the mission because they took an oath to obey their superiors. In either event, the soldiers ARE the mission.
You can no more logically state that you back the troops and oppose the war than you can say that you back the murderer but oppose the murder.
Get ready for it, folks. As soon as the missiles are launched, protesters (celebrity and otherwise) will elbow their way to the nearest microphone and proclaim their allegiance to "the brave men and women serving in our armed forces," while continuing to decry their mission.
This is, of course, bogus. It's impossible to be for the warriors and against the war. Most of these protesters (and let's call them what they are: not antiwar but anti-American or anti-Bush) will be hoping the war goes badly, even to the point of an outright defeat. Such an unlikely turn of events, of course, would result in cataclysmic casualties among the troops they so piously support. But for most protesters, better a war gone bad than a success for George W. Bush.
The protesters have chosen their side. Don't let them share in the victory to come. Never forget what they were saying before the war began. If they try to climb onto the bandwagon, kick them off.
"southernnorthcarolina"
Weddington, NC
He should be dishonorably discharged.
As Patton said "I won't have a yellow bastard in my army."
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