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Ron Franscell

The definition of "support" is the real nut of the matter, isn't it?

If support is "I don't want them to die," then that's different from "We should spend gazillions for on weapons for more shock and awe." I guess that's simply a question that should be posed to every person who slaps a magnetic yellow ribbon on their fender and calls it patriotism.

For me, I use the situation I described in asking the question at http://UnderTheNews.blogspot.com :

Imagine yourself talking to a young soldier and saying: "I think everything you risk your life to do is ill-advised, stupid, inhumane, murderous, sickening and the people who declared it are liars, cheats, thugs and swindlers who don't care if you get disemboweled by a roadside bomb ... but I support you entirely."

Do you think that young soldier FEELS supported?

I think your point that he's a professional and it doesn't matter to you if he feels supported throws a very interesting wrinkle in the fabric of this conversation. It bears a lot of thinking.

Thanks, Houston!

crismoon

I like your idea about defining support. I like your definition.

I disagree with the whole issue of professionals. That may be so in the officers corps, but at grunt level what you have is a bunch of kids who cant afford to go to college or who cant abide by life as they know it in their "ghettos" and are looking for the only way out they can see. No question that they chose that route, but sometimes desperation makes you take a path and hope you don't get asked to do anything that is against your belief system.

Houston

I thought about how to define professional but still take in the fact that so many young men and women have chosen to go into the military out of tradition or economic circumstances. I refuse to see them as victims, however. That doesn't show the proper respect for them, the job that they're doing and the choices they have made.

They do not have carte blanche to do evil in my name, and some of the crap they're pulling over there is wrong. They're going to come back with hidden wounds. Who's going to help them heal? Republicans? They'll just blame them for their suffering and turn their back on them. Don't think so? Take a walk with me through the area where my office is and let me introduce you to a few Vietnam vets living on the street.

We need to be very cautious when we send our young men and women to a war not everyone supports. Bush and his gang were reckless, and the worst of it is they're getting away with it.

Daedalus

You can also support the war and not the troops. That is what this admin does. You know, not providing armor and equipment, screwing veterans, stoploss...the list goes on.

Chiclit

I just wanted to say that not all of the people I know who are/were in the Reserves are not "professionals." My husband was in the Army National Guard for seven years and missed stop-loss by a few months. He, like most of the people in his unit, signed up when he was eighteen/nineteen because he needed help to pay for college. He didn't want to have tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt to carry for the rest of his life, like I do. He certainly wasn't interested in politics then, and still isn't for the most part. He signed up pre-Sept. 11, in 1996 or so I think, and of course had a lot different impression of what his role could/would be. Most of these guys/girls thought they would have to be ready for hurricanes, disaster preparedness, things like that. I know that's not the case with everybody, but we have to remember that an alarming number of the troops are just reservists or national guard, many who signed up in "the good old days" pre-W., with obligations that should have ran out a good year or two ago.

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