Supporting the troops…or not?
Sep 29th, 2008 Posted in Learning about the world | 4 comments »I’m not sure if…
- Anyone will read this
- Anyone will be horribly offended by this who does read it
I need to ask a question though.
Peer pressure and guilt trips
Whilst it’s not only American soldiers who are fighting in other countries at the moment, as a Brit it seems the issue of ‘supporting the troops’ is a very American one.
I got an email today from a British friend which was basically a genuinely important and serious message wrapped up in a guilt trip. There is one thing that is really annoying me though, and it is this that has caused me to write.
Assumptions need to be questioned
There appears to be an assumption, and an incorrect one at that, that not supporting a war, means not supporting the people fighting that war.
It seems that supporting the war has been muddled up with ‘supporting the troops’; the people on the front lines and their families. The more sceptical part of me thinks that this may not be an accident
Is the difference not obvious?
Why is it not possible to give your full support to people who are prepared to risk their safety in order to protect others, whilst at the same time criticising the decisions that led to them being put in that position in the first place?
Am I missing something?
