Geodog

Support our troops, question our politicians

I have read various calls today for people to support our troops by stopping demonstrating, stopping questioning our (supposed) leaders, and stopping being against the war. What ridiculous nonsense. While I agree that it would be despicable to repeat the folly of some Vietnam era protesters who took out their anger about the United States government's Vietnam folly on the soldiers who fought it, the best way to support our troops is to question our leaders.

Our troops are the sons and daughters of America, and it is our government that is wagering their lives. Our Congress effectively abdicated its constitutional responsibilities last fall. It would be unpatriotic of us not to question what the administration is doing with our children's lives, and not to protest if we think that our children's lives are being misspent. Backing us up is the authority of Dubya's favorite president, who said:

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Theodore Roosevelt

Or there is that other famous dissident, Abraham Lincoln, who protested that the Mexican-American war was an unnecessary and unconstitutional war of conquest, designed to add more slave states to the union. He was right, of course. It was a direct precursor to our Civil War.

The United States has a long and glorious history of dissent to war. Let's support our troops and our country by ensuring that it continues.