Support the troops

I am mindful of of the constant admonition to "Support our troops!" It makes sense to do so, no matter whether they have been called to fight a just war or that other kind. (Hint: Iraq.) The military in all its branches has a job to do that has to be done in peacetime or in wartime. They protect us by their presence and their readiness in the former time and walk through the valley of death for us in wartime.

I am, however, much conflicted by the kinds of things I am urged to do in support of the troops. I don't particularly idolize someone just because he or she is wearing a uniform. I don't walk up to strangers and tell them: "Good job. We support you!" I do, however, confess to tearing up a bit when I go through an airport and see some poor, tired GI waiting for his chance to go home for a while. I spend a moment thinking about his situation, what he may have been through, how long he's been away from home and family--and wishing him well. But I've always done that. It's something that's been almost ingrained thanks to my late father's great concern for fellow veterans and soldiers, something I witnessed as a young child when he would pick up any hitchhiking soldier and drive miles out his way to make sure that they got all the way home.

I suppose that flying the flag and saying patriotic things might be a way to support the troops, but I am more concerned about how the troops are treated. I was seriously put out to read, during the height of the early fighting in Iraq, that some troops didn't have food. The supply line was too long--and the responsibility of providing meals had been privatized--so the front line was too dangerous for the civilians who would otherwise be providing meals. It was similarly aggravating to think that many troops didn't have the body armor they needed, the right color camoflauge uniforms, and, for all I know, the right weapons for the environment. How do you go to war in a desert with woodlands camoflauge, I wondered, more than a little angry at what looked like some poor logistical planning. And then their combat pay was cut? Sheesh.

But most of my attention to the matter of supporting the troops comes from the sad things that I have discovered while researching some elements of the health care system. When these troops come home--if they don't come home in a coffin--they may get a fine welcome, maybe even a parade. But they won't get much health care. Access to care through the Veteran's Administration was cut more than a year ago and the co-pays charged to those still eligible for care was doubled. And there are more cuts planned in the near future that include hospital closings and further restrictions on access.

Then, too, there's every reason to believe that war is much more traumatic than we've ever admitted in this country. We have more or less blithely sent our men--and now our women--off to war with the expectation that they will do their jobs well and return to praise and thanks, with maybe a few days to rest a bit. After VietNam we began to talk about post traumatic stress syndrome, realizing that it wasn't just a phenomenon of that war, that it had been evident in other wars--without the respect that its devastation on the human psyche deserved. Now we may be seeing that even those soldiers who don't show their distress overtly may nonetheless be suffering--but the help they need is not available.

I know that there are several more instances in which I think we've let our troops down, and I realize that I should be taking the time to document each of these assertions to help support my own veracity. I'm being lazy right now, I know. But it's just that I read something today that made me realize, yet again, how hollow is the admonition to "support the troops." Southpaw (http://redshark.goodshow.net/~cbellomy/mt/mt-tb.cgi/901) wrote:

Yet, people like my neighbor with their "Supoort President Bush and the troops" need to scratch out one or the other because it's becoming increasingly clear that you can't support Bush and support the troops at the same time. [Emphasis added.]

Why? The high number of reservists returned from Iraq to find that their jobs are gone, their careers over.

Some folks say that you don't have to support President Bush in order to support the troops. Some folks even say that you don' thave to support the War in Iraq in order to support the troops. All I say is that there's more to supporting the troops than saying "Attaboy!" And, when the war is over, they are still going to need our support.