We see this saying everywhere. Magnets or bumper stickers for cars, signs in the front yards of our neighbors, but what does supporting our troops mean. Some might think it’s to support them and their choice to go to war, keep sending them care packages and make sure they know they are appreciated. But others, even families of soldiers believe this support to mean ending the war. Personally, I’m torn between what to think. But I think if I had a close friend fighting overseas, I would be able to make up my mind quickly. I’m currently reading “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, and near the beginning of the book, we meet a wife of an old war friend who believes the latter of the two opinions on support. In response to the war book Vonnegut is planning to write, Mary, the wife, says this:
” But you’re going to write it that way, are you.” This wasn’t a question. It was an accusation.
“I — I don’t know,” I said.
“Well, I know,” she said. “You’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs.”(pg. 18)
I can understand where Mary’s coming from. Especially when her husband is a WWII veteran and all of the struggles they must have faced once he came home and had to be reintegrated into a normal lifestyle again. But, I never realized the amount of families fighting to bring their troops home, I guess I associated that opinion with the hippies who stand in downtown Grand Rapids, saying “honk for peace” and “support our troops, end the war.” In the blog I am subscribed to, “Military Families Speak Out”, I found a recent blog dedicated to the reasons they oppose the war in Afghanistan. The following are sub-topics of their discussions,
“Bring my loved one home now. Don’t send my loved one (back) to Iraq or Afghanistan. (Tell your MFSO story)”
“If it was wrong when Bush did it, it’s wrong when Obama does it. Military occupation is wrong.”
“The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are exacting a terrible toll from our loved ones in the military, our country, and the Iraqi and Afghan people.”
“Our loved ones are being ordered to fight to prop up a corrupt Afghan government. This doesn’t keep us safe.”
This really made me start to think. The ending of World War II was such an amazing day, especially in the United States. The Iraq War has been going on for so so long, and these are all perfectly legit reasons for ending the war. But it seems that we’re in too deep. We’ve gotten ourselves involved and we can’t just cop out now. Is this war ever going to end??
Full Blog
MFSO Background Information:
Opposing the War in Afghanistan
November 6, 2009
November 28, 2009 at 3:06 am |
I often wonder the same thing. What does supporting our troops really mean? Personally, I don’t feel like anything I could do would be sufficient in comparison for what they do for us. I also am torn between ending the war and staying in it since we are already in so deep, as you said. I think that our generation isn’t like a hippie generation because we have learned from them. World War Two was largely supported but Vietnam was not. And I think that we have an example that looks a lot like today. Sometimes I think, “why are we still in this war?” But would I be unpatriotic if I opposed it? Would I be letting out troops down. Like you, if I had a loved one over there I would just want it to stop. My friend is going there soon and it scares me to death… I hope it ends soon.