liberal

I wrote this on my phone on June 29th - can't seem to post t the blog yet from there.
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So, at some point Sprint will actually get their act together and get the data plan for this new phone together and I'll be able to use it more to it's full capacity. Ideally that will be a few more blog posts and some more writing in general.

For example, right now I'm waiting for the C train @ Canal St. after a fundraiser at The Tank, the new hot downtown theatre/performance art space..

The fundraiser was OK, nothing extra-ordinary. I'm thinking of last night at Drinking Liberally when a co-drinker asked the somewhat doomed question, "I wonder when someone is finally going to say, 'Fuck the troops?'.

As some of you can imagine, I kept my temper, but barely. It's conversations like this that make me despair. Sheer ignorance is the bedrock of too many opinions to hear it at a progressive liberal meetup. I know for a fact that this opinion doesn't prevail through the majority of the left, but it definitely set my teeth on edge.

So, let me break it down into small chunks, as I understand it (open to rebuttle).

a) America needs some sort of a Military. I'm not sure many would dispute this point but I would like to build this argument from the ground up.

b) Said Military will indubitably be created from officers and enlisted men.

c) Enlisted men cannot be given the option to question orders. This is where things get sticky for some.

People who have never, and may never, be put into any combat situation assume that a soldier has a conscious, that can trump this directive. Or, in a milder term, that a soldier 'should' have something higher to appeal to than their immediate superior officer; a built-in moral guide.

The premise is that if soldiers<í>would just exercise their own moral judgement at times when they are put into potentially questionable situations they could then stand up against the moral wrong doings of the current Military strategy.

In my not-so-humble opinion, these are the same people who think war is fought by pretty rules that both sides have approved before-hand.

temporarily moving on.....

d) Officers and Politicians need to be held accountable for the orders they give and the strategy they prescribe. Particularly the latter.

e) If the soldiers are willing to put their own lives & morality on the line for us, it is our job, as citizens, to go to bat for them. It's our job to stand up for the soldiers, who have given of themselves, so that they ARE NOT used by corrupt agencies.

So, my answer to, "When is someone going to say, Fuck the troops?"; hopefully never.

Better to ask when is someone going to say, 'Save the Troops'. When are we as a people going to stand up to the real people forcing this war, at the cost of the lives of the people sworn to protect us? The people who need us to look out for them stateside?

*** Sidenote: Why must a soldier give up personal responsibility for their actions? Well, first, this is more-than-a-little misnomer. Many soldiers will forever be haunted by what they did in the service, regardless of who forgives them.. Beyond that, a soldier, plain and simple, must be able (not willing) to kill on the faith of a superior officer's word. Period. Not based on his/her own personal knowledge. This is a factor of supreme trust. If some people were not capable of this, we would have no military (a).

So, how about we get OUR act together stateside and help our soldiers?