I do not support the troops

At the risk of sounding like Ann Coulter but on the other side, I do not support the American troops. They are an occupying army, illegally in a country that did nothing to us, and in fact has been used by us in the past. I am sorry for the families of the two soldiers that were killed recently, but that’s two out of 2500+. I am equally sorry, if not more sorry, for the families of Iraqis who were killed by an invading army, sadly ours. Sadly there are many more of them. The Iraqis did not ask us to come. We went, some eagerly. Had those men not volunteered to be part of immoral killing machine, they would be alive today.

One man on CNN said he wanted the murderers found and brought to justice. Good God, if our country was attacked and we were defending it, would we turn anyone who killed one of the invaders? No, we would honor them. The Iraqis are defending their country. We are the bad guys.

Often soldiers say they are fighting in Iraqi streets so they won’t have to fight on American streets. Turn the sentence around. They are doing to others what they don’t want done to us.

And did those young soldiers die to bring Democracy to a people? Just read the memo from the American Ambassador to Condi Rice published in the UK Paper The Independent and we know we have made their country worse especially for women as the country turns more fundamentalist.

Yes our army was lied to on why we are there, they are not equipped as they should be, and we know they will not receive proper help when they come back. That is our government’s fault. So our government is not supporting the troops either.

However, the soldiers that sign up have the responsibility as citizens to understand and learn what our government is doing. Right now one Lt. has refused what he considers and illegal order to go to Iraq citing the US’s position during the Nuremberg Trials. I support him although it will not do much good. People who stand up to wrong are too few. People who give into it are too many, which is why we are in this mess today.

At the same time our educational system has failed in teaching many young people critical thinking skills as well as all of US history. Few have the academic desire to look beyond the propaganda.

Also on CNN today was a Latin American police leader who is on trial for the disappeared in his country. Charles Taylor is on his way to trial. I imagined seeing Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld all being tried as the war criminals they are. It made me smile.