Poll: Many support troops, but not the war
WASHINGTON —Support the troops, oppose the war. The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that many Americans perceive the alleged atrocities against Iraqi civilians by U.S. forces as isolated incidents while saying the U.S.-led invasion was a mistake, a disconnect that sets this conflict apart from Vietnam…. While the AP poll found that most Americans are willing to give U.S. troops the benefit of the doubt, their misgivings about the war and the prospect of Iraq establishing a stable, democratic government are growing. Fifty-nine percent said the United States made a mistake in going to war, a new high and a significant jump from the 34 percent in December 2004.
It’s no secret that I stand in adamant opposition to the war in Iraq. There is nothing that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader has done during his reign that has done more irretrievable damage, wasted more lives and money, and been justified with more lies and deceptions than his unjusitifiable and immoral quagmire in Iraq- this generation’s Vietnam. As I write this, the American death toll approaches 3,000, and the number of Americans wounded and maimed is significantly higher. Of course, these numbers don’t begin to approach the numbers of innocent Iraqis civilians killed and wounded by our immoral war of occupation. No one really knows how many Iraqis have died or been maimed by Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s war of aggression.
No matter how much Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader and his apologists harp on the importance of the war in Iraq to winning the war on terror, there is one salient fact that is conveniently ommitted. There WAS no terrorist threat in Iraq until we invaded. In effect, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s war created the very terrorist menace we are now heavily engaged in combatting. Ingenious, isn’t it? You want to look tough after 9.11, and you want to look as if you’ore seriously prsecuting the war on terror. So what do you do? Yep; you create your very own homegrown insurgency. For the low, low price of a few thousand American dead and wounded (never mind the hundreds of thousands of Iraq dead and wounded), you can have your very own war on terror. Call now, operators are standing by….
The problem with this scenario is that the American doing the bleeding and dying are American troops who are simply following orders. These people are doing yeoman’s work in a no-win situation. Trained to fight a conventional war, American soldiers are fighting a very unconventional enemy, one all too willing to use American troops as fodder for their improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
How anyone could not support these troops is beyond me…and that brings me to my argument. There is no inconsistency in opposing the war while still strongly supporting our men and women in uniform- and it would appear that an ever-increasing number of Americans are coming to see the truth in this.
The reality is that our government is sending our sons, daughters husbands and wives off into a combat scenario in which “victory” is an increasingly nebulous and difficult to quantify commodity. Too often, “victory” is as simple as not coming home in a box. Our soldiers deserve better. They deserve the best equipment this country can provide. They deserve to be put in a position where they can successfully carry out their mission. They do not deserve to be IED fodder. They deserve better than to be sacrificed for a policy initiated by lies and fueled by the need to propagate those lies
Our sons and daughters deserve better than to be placed into a position where they must defend a poorly thought-out policy with virtually no hope of success in it’s current form. How many more must come home missing limbs, or worse, in boxes, before Americans WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CAT LITTER??
WE DESERVE BETTER.
Still glad you voted Republican??
