Today, all Americans remember and honor those who have served in the armed forces at home and abroad, in wartime or peacetime.
In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. – President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Thank you all.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
I'm the President of The Park People of Milwaukee County, President-elect of the Washington Heights Neighborhood Association, an elected official of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, a union leader, community organizer and transit advocate who is working to make Milwaukee great again. I've been writing this weblog for nearly ten years ... read more...
Actually, I don’t believe you. I don’t think you really mean it.
Actually, I don’t believe Smitty’s comment. I don’t think he really means it.
Actually, I do mean it.
Actually, that’s sad.
That’s an incredibly ridiculous statement Smitty considering you know nothing about me or my family, and frankly, it doesn’t deserve a response. Thanks for your opinion though.
Smitty,
I’ll bet you have a yellow ribbon magnet on your car, don’t you?
If you think that is supporting the troops, that is a nice gesture but it doesn’t mean anything. And I know that Dan, along with me and a lot of other “liberals” truly care about the people who put ourselves in harm’s way for our country. Maybe because we know some of them who have served with honor and who are serving right now.
It’s the people who treat them as if they are pawns to be played with who don’t support the troops.
Jill,
No, I don’t have a yellow ribbon on my car, do you? I find it disingenuous of you and Daniel Cody to support the troops every Veteran’s and Memorial Day when it is politically convenient to do so.
I’m a Vietnam veteran, so I know how “liberals” (to use your quotes) supported the troops. Nothing has changed, liberals still claim to support the troops but oppose the wars they fight. Saying we share a common concern for the men and women serving our country is a false statement, and one that is quite unwelcome. While Daniel’s concern for the troops is born of political calculation, I worry for my comrades who are put in harm’s way to accomplish a mission.
BTW, I do volunteer work at the VA hospital and contribute to the USO. It’s not much but it’s not a yellow ribbon.
Daniel,
What I know about you is based on your blog, which includes pictures of the March 20th anti-war demonstration. I didn’t see any “Thanks to all those who served in our Armed Forces” signs carried by the protestors but there was a sign accusing those same troops of inflicting collateral damage on civilians.
So I don’t think my original statement is “incredibly ridiculous”.
Smitty,
I thank you for your service, and so do a lot of other “liberals.” If you make the mistake of reading the actions of a few to speak for a whole group, that is a dangerous step to take – by that logic I could lump every Evangelical Christian into a group with those nut jobs who protest at soldier’s funerals. I don’t take that leap.
I can tell you that it is possible to support the troops out of concern for their safety while questioning the actions of their leadership that sent them on a questionable mission in the first place. The soliders (and Marines, sailors, and airmen) out doing the work deserve our support and they have mine – all year around, in ways that might be different than yours but are what I can offer (and no, a yellow ribbon is not involved). That doesn’t mean that I can’t hope and sometimes protest for an end to the war.
The fact you’ve lumped Dan in with every person who is carrying a sign that you don’t agree with is the same as lumping all Evangelicals with the funeral-protesting nut jobs. If I did something like that, I would be “incredibly ridiculous.”
This administration right now is working to deny reasonable disability to injured soldiers coming back from Iraq. I find that incredibly offensive. Just like that screw-up funeral protesters. But I guess it doesn’t count because I’m a “liberal.”
I didn’t see any “Thanks to all those who served in our Armed Forces signs carried by the protestorsâ€
That’s because we weren’t, or aren’t, protesting those who serve in the armed forces. We were protesting the policies of this administration that drove us into an unnecessary costly war with no plan for winning the peace beyond a couple cute catch phrases.
My protesting the war has nothing to do with our support for those who have to fight it or those who serve stateside for that matter, and time after time, it’s the one thing that some like yourself have been unable or unwilling to understand: you can support the troops and not support the war. I do it every day, and whether or not you “believe me” is, quite frankly, irrelevant.
And if you’re going to base your entire opinion of someone on their weblog and pictures, I’d invite you to read the complete last five years of posts to get a more complete picture than what you seem to have right now about who I am. Or, if you’re available, let’s sit down for a cup of coffee or bottle of beer and I’ll explain to you personally just how it is I can support those in uniform while being against the Iraq war, and how completely off base and offensive the “political calculation” comment is.
Daniel,
I’m sorry but your reasoning doesn’t work; there’s a disconnect you are overlooking. You cannot separate the soldiers from the war they’re fighting, they are inextricably bound together. You can’t oppose a war (any war) as illegal and immoral and then say (in effect) “But I support the troops who are carrying out these illegal and immoral actions.”
I don’t think my concern for the troops is the same as that of the antiwar demonstrators. It appears the Left has decided that American troops are the ultimate tool in convincing others that this war is unjust. In other words, they are being used as means to an end; something I find disturbing.
You know, it is possible that I can believe that the troops are just doing their job, obeying orders, because that is what they are supposed to be doing. But that doesn’t mean I have to say that the troops are the same as the people who direct the policies that they are duty-bound to carry out. To do that would put them in the same boat with the likes of Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Bush. I would never insult our troops that way. The troops are the people putting it on the line out there, whether it is for a good reason (WMDs?) or not. There is honor in following the orders you are given, and that is what our troops are doing.
There is no honor, however, in sending our people into a poorly-planned and ill-reasoned conflict when the “powers that be” have no consequences coming to them if things go wrong. Sorry, Rumsfeld losing his job isn’t a severe enough consequence to compare to what the troops have been commanded to do.
I honor those people because I believe that nearly all of them are serving for the right reasons. Some of them who are over there think it’s the right thing to do, some of them don’t. But the point is, they are there, serving honorably, because it is what they have been called to do. They did not make the decision to go in, but they are doing their job. So that’s how I separate them – the people who do their jobs with honor and those who act with questionable motives when given the responsibility for the very lives of the troops.
If the Left is using the troops as a means to an end, how can you say that this administration is not doing exactly the same thing? Regime change or whatever it is this year is an end just like any other, and our troops are being “used” even more by the Right as you believe they are by the Left.
Smitty like I said above, thanks for your opinion.
Jill,
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. Your response was thougtful; and while I don’t agree with everything you write, I do agree with much of it.
Same to you, Smitty!
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce