“I don’t support the war, but I support the troops.”

She said it smugly and with an unaccountable confidence. For a moment I actually imagined that she had thought long and hard about what she was saying and understood its implications. She was convinced that it was somehow reasonable to be against the war, while conversely being in some surreal acknowledgment of the validity of the actions of the soldiers being used to fight in that war.

“Mom,” I said in an unbelieving tone, “Do you have any idea what that even means?”

“Huh?”

So, what does this phrase mean anyway: I don’t support the war… but I support the troops?

Well, this is the question I am going to attempt to answer here. It is a statement of passion and of fact. It is also as contradictory of an assertion as I have ever heard in my life!

First, let’s break this statement up into three parts and examine how these two declarations correspond with each other:

1)    ‘I don’t support the war.’ – This is a very cut and dry sentence. It translates very easily. Whoever says this probably does not feel that the war is relevant and/or that it is not worth the cost, both financially and in the number of human lives being lost. It can be emotionally driven. It can be logically driven. It can be intellectually driven. It is at least a somewhat educated response to a situation that, in the eyes of the person who says it, does not believe that war is either justified or necessary for the reasons it is being fought.

2)    ‘I support the troops.’ – Once again, this is a very cut and dry sentence. It translates fairly easily. Whoever says this believes that our men and women in the military should have the equipment, medical care, training, and funding to make sure that they are protected and comfortable, and to ensure that their job be both honorable and justifiable. It is a confirmation of faith that the troops are pursuing in good conscience the freedom of our nation, and helping to free others. It can be emotionally driven. It can be logically driven. It can be intellectually driven. And it can be at least somewhat of an educated response to the fact that our boys and girls in the military are in harms way and should be protected by having the necessary tools to do their jobs. It is also if I may, a statement that one supports the actions of the troops: a statement of faith, honor and justification for their occupation of a foreign country and for the assault, imprisonment, and killing of its people (including civilian men, women and children).

3)    ‘But’ – In the dictionary, this word means: however, although, other than, except, excluding, and save for. It is used as a connecting word to express conditions or reasons why a previous statement is not quite accurate or complete.

On the surface, these seem like two wonderful concepts. And separately, they express both the patriotism and the will and opinion of the majority of our citizenry. But now, let’s put them back together and examine what one phrase means when preceded by the other.

I don’t support the war, but… I support the troops.

Is it just me… or does this statement ultimately boil down to a paradox? Other words that come to mind: inconsistent, illogical, irrational, ironic, incongruous, incompatible, absurd, contradictory, opposite, unsound, odd, and just plain stupid.

These two concepts are noble in and of themselves. But like oil and water, air and pollution, church and state… They do not belong in the same sentence. What does this statement mean? Well, first let’s examine the war itself:

The war (occupation) in Iraq and Afghanistan is one of the most horrific human rights violations and war crimes in our history. The fact that many thousands of American troops have been killed in the Middle East has been plastered all over media headlines, all of the time (some Veterans groups estimate that there are over 70,000 U.S. deceased when taking into consideration deaths in V.A. hospitals following combat, post-traumatic suicide, and whether or not our soldiers were shot in the back or the front of the head). But what is rarely talked about are the well over 1 million innocent Iraqi, Afghani, and now Pakistani men, women, and children who have been murdered in the name of false democracy, and the tens of millions who have been displaced as a result of our so-called humanitarian efforts in the Middle-East. We all know that the government lied about Iraq harboring weapons of mass destruction. We all should know by know that oil and the control of it’s distribution is the reason we are in the Middle East. We know that Osama Bin Laden lived in Afghanistan, not Iraq. And we now know that our troops are guarding the poppy fields in Afghanistan to ensure mass production for U.S. and world consumption of government controlled opium products, including many common opiate-based pharmaceuticals, anti-depressants, anti-anxieties, and the highly addictive and illegal street drug heroin. Yet even against our most logical sense of reasoning, most of us still hold on to the preposterous theory that a guy, hiding out in a bunch of caves with no electricity and virtually no support, masterminded a plot to crash airplanes into the most highly guarded section of the United States’ airspace, systematically fooling N.O.R.A.D. for the first time in history into thinking it was only a drill, and then escaping the clutches of what is supposed to be the best trained army in the world for the past 8 years. Talk about a conspiracy theory… This is so absurd that I can hardly write it without laughing! The men and women responsible for it are still in power, despite the fact that overwhelming evidence is easily found in books, the internet, radio, and even on mainstream television, all showing a massive conspiracy and cover-up on the part of this government and all of its acronymic organizations.

Watch these documentaries on Youtube and Google video for free for more information:

911: Blueprint For Truth (Architects and Engineers for 911 truth)
Loose Change: Final Cut
9/11 Mysteries
Zeitgeist (part 1)
Zeitgeist Addendum (part 2)

And now back to the original question. What does this statement mean anyway: ‘I don’t support the war, but I support the troops.’

Well, it could be the most potent marketing strategy ever conceived, complete with yellow ribbons, tea-shirts, and wristbands. Even if we say we don’t support the war, we have all been duped into saying we support the troops. For, if we don’t support the troops we would be evil, un-American, and unpatriotic. These are the names we’re told to call each other as we self-police ourselves and keep one another in line.

And so the conundrum now presents itself, sinister and ugly as it is. The moral of the story is this…

→ The brainwashed, media-driven American people are unwittingly, and quite submissively forced to support the war, because they support the troops. Brilliant!

What are we thinking… and what do people mean when they say it?

Well, I’m not sure anybody has thought this through. It is just mindlessly repeated as a parrot might squawk a phrase it has heard over and over and over again. But in this case, we are the animals being trained by the repetitious media on our televisions, in our movies, and on our radios. I can only assume that people mean that they don’t support torture, but they support the torturers. They don’t support murder, but support the murderers. They believe that molestation and rape is bad, unless our soldiers are using it as a tool to terrorize “insurgents” and their families into submission. They don’t believe war is the answer, but they do not question the architects of that war or their methods. They don’t support nation building, but support the demolition and construction teams, and the vastly expensive no-bid contracts given to private corporations who are making fortunes from the American tax payers by wasting and spending as much money as they possibly can in their “cost-plus” compensation plans after contributing heavily to the pre-determined winners of political campaigns. (See the documentary: Iraq For Sale)

This is absolute hypocrisy mixed with a heaping portion of escapism topped off with a healthy dose of ignorance.

Here is just one small example of how much we actually support the troops:

There are over 200,000 homeless war veterans in the United States.

“On every night, 200,000 people who have put on the uniform and served this country sleep homeless on the streets,” said Aaron Glantz, a journalist who has been covering the stories of US military vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. (Source: Pacifica, Middle-East Online)

How is this in anyway supporting the troops?

Most good citizens who hear information such as this will inherently just go on with their incessant consuming, truly enjoying their ignorance while thousands more innocents die at the hands of the troops they unwittingly support: buying their sweatshop-manufactured clothing and enjoying imported foodstuffs packaged in poisonous plastic, ready-to-heat-and-eat containers, while the economy of the country of export enjoys mass starvation and food riots as they fall victim to the debt-for-land and debt-for-oil schemes of our illegitimate government. Is this the American dream: pure, unadulterated gluttony and ignorance?
For those who still believe that we are in Iraq and Afghanistan for altruistic and patriotic reasons, here is a little known fact that might change your mind: Osama Bin Laden, the supposed mastermind behind 9/11, is indeed on the United States most wanted terrorist list. But never once in the eight years since September 11, 2001 has he ever been charged with any crime related to that day. That’s because there is absolutely evidence linking this man to the crimes of 9/11. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself… On the governments own website (Go to: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm).

So, do you support the war… despite the fact that it is being fought under false pretenses and government manufactured terrorism?
Do you support the troops… who are killing innocent men, women, and children every day while ‘just following orders’ and then killing themselves because they see the faces of their innocent victims in their own daydreams and nightmares?

I hope that you can open your hearts and expand your minds past the empty tube in your living room and start to realize that, through heavy repetition and marketing strategies, you have been sold an idea that doesn’t make sense: that it is your patriotic duty to support our troops who are deployed in an illegal war that you do not support in the first place! Never be afraid to seek or speak the truth. For who else but a politician and a priest could have made up the rule that speaking about politics and religion in mixed company should be avoided. Get angry, speak out and inform others that these occupations are against everything the principles and doctrines of this country, its founders, and its Constitution stand for.

And the next time you are asked what you think about the war and occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, do your fellow Americans and Middle-Easterners a favor… be original and think before you speak!

-Clint Richardson (realitybloger.wordpress.com)
09/15/09