With Special Guest Star....Michael Turner

Posted by Jason Easley on 05.23.2007

This week Michael Turner joins us to talk about why supporting the troops should be more than a bumper sticker, magnet, or catchy political slogan. He points out the difference between truly supporting the troops and blindly waving the flag for political gain.


Support Our Troops? Less Lip-service Please!

More than 100 American journalists, more than 850 American contract mercenaries, more than 1,000 American aid workers and public contractors, and more than 3,400 American soldiers have already died—and more than 51,000 American soldiers and civilians have sustained mental and physical handicaps that will likely affect them for the rest of their lives; our family, friends, and neighbors, over in a distant land they ought not be. These aren't numbers…these are people.

As a nation, we came together in sorrow and anger when 2,979 people tragically lost their lives during the September 11th, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Yet what about the Americans who have died in Iraq since then —a number which far exceeds the number of casualties sustained on 9/11? These aren't people who died as a result of a terrorist attack on a civilian target on our homeland, but just as tragically, they are lives which have been lost because they were blithely put on the frontline of danger in a political red herring; a line of danger in front of which they didn't belong. A deadly battlefield that serves no purpose or benefit to our country and one that has only brought unfathomable instability, lawlessness, and pain that didn't exist before; one which has bred both terrorism and anti-American sentiment, resulting in the world being a much more dangerous place for generations to come.

Why are we not as incensed by the tragic deaths of even more Americans, who continue to die in the shadow of 9/11, yet for reasons having nothing to do with legacy of 9/11? And for what? It seems each week we are told that it is in support of a different reason, probably because each previous reason was based more on spin, than foundation. Did we attack Iraq because they trained and funded those who attacked us on 9/11? No, that was the Saudi Arabians. Did we attack Iraq because they were building and storing Weapons of Mass Destruction? No, that was North Korea and Iran. Did we do it to be welcomed as liberators in Iraq? How about to bring stability and peace to Iraq? Nope, try again. How about to get oil to pay for the war, to help rebuild Iraq, and provide us with access an inexpensive source of crude oil? No, nope, and negative.

Sadly, the most common reason used for why we are still in Iraq is to "support of our troops," which is a slap in the face to our troops; and each time it is used, it discounts the risk and responsibility our soldiers are shouldering every day. It's a statement which takes their sacrifice in vain and twists it to serve any purpose desired by those who condescend to use that as a tool for their agenda. I say this because once anyone says that we are doing it "for the troops," any rebuttal can be manipulated to suggest an anti-Patriotic position. It has become an easy device of the weak-minded to continue to justify any action that sends even more of our brave young heroes into the ring of fire.

Especially not when they claim that everything they do, they do for the troops…so how about doing something such as giving them proper body armor, or armored Humvees, or pre-deployment training, or humane periods of down-time between tours, or reductions in tour-length, or stress training, or well-maintained VA hospitals, or proper pay and benefits. Please don't get me wrong: I support our troops by wanting those still fighting to come home, alive and well—and by not sitting quietly as people try to use them as a "talking point" to push a self-satisfying agenda.

"I think that we do a great disrespect to the history of this country when we lose our ability to apply a balance to the way we think; focusing on our triumphs and ignoring our failures, focusing on our heroics and ignoring our criminality. What's wrong with America is when Presidential Candidates must separate criticism of our democracy from the discussion of their platforms. What's wrong with America is the way in which we are being forced more and more to equate criticism as something counter to democracy, when, in fact, it's the core of it." - Sean Penn, 5/4/07

I respect our soldiers and I love my country, but that doesn't mean that I have to support a military offensive that doesn't help us or help the people in the country we invaded. And it especially doesn't mean that I have to blindly support a Presidential Administration, which clearly doesn't support the "will of the people" it was elected to serve and represent. Hell, with the way our Administration "supports our troops," who needs enemies?

No, I say, I am loyal to my country and I am loyal to the Constitution of the United States of America, not to someone who abuses those two things in spite of his Title.
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Michael A. Turner, a self-professed philomath of the Arts and Sciences, was graduated magna cum laude in Business and French from the Carlson School of Management and is the author of several blogs. He is a noted Wine Consultant, a prognosticator of social pitfalls, and a passionate proponent of wildlife, the environment, and human rights. He was born in Los Angeles, has lived in Paris, Honolulu, Minneapolis, and Montreal and currently lives in Manhattan. Working on his first book on National Education Reform, he hopes to restore the state of education in the United States to promote universal social and intellectual advancement.

For more information,or comments you can email Michael at [e-mail], or visit him online at www.dotsomething.wordpress.com