We support our troops????

Originally Posted by capnhowdy

Great effort, Mari.... The world needs more people like yourself who will assume responsability as a citizen and do what they can to help, whether it be directly or indirectly instead of pissing and moaning and fault finding. May God bless you.

Sincerely Grateful,

capnhowdy, USMC (VV)

Thanks, capn!

As a "pacifist," I take violent exception to the following:

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken - and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest, but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

One reason I am opposed to the conflict in Iraq is precisely because I DO support our troops. When my career military father did two tours in Vietnam, I wrote him almost every day. I was opposed to that war, too, and I don't think I was a wussy girl because I opposed Johnson's and Nixon's policies while still respecting my father's and every other soldier's courage and service to his country.

Here's a little story that shows some of the other good things Soldier's Angels do. My friend Lisa whose husband is currently in Iraq told me the following story:

Her husband is currently stationed somewhere near Baghdad.. Apparently some Iraqi who was not pleased to be "liberated" lobbed an incendiary devise at one of the barracks which house the soldiers in his outfit. No soldiers were killed, but the barracks caught fire. The Army has no fire fighting equipment over there! (Unbelievable, eh?) They had to call in an Iraqi fire department. Needless to say, the Iraqi's took their sweet time getting there, and when they arrived they "accidently" forgot to bring enough water with them to put out the blaze. The barracks burned to the ground and the soldiers who had been staying there lost everything they had, including even a change of clean uniforms. The Soldier's Angels have been organizing a drive for these men and women, as well, sending stuff like personal care items, (razers and wet wipes are highly prized), along with any kind of snack foods. They are even sending stuff like ipods and video games.

The Army is giving them second hand uniforms from those who washed out of basic training. This last reminds me of stories about the Civil War where Confederate soldiers would go through and remove the boots of the dead Union soldiers because the Confederate Army couldn't provide its men with shoes. No fire fighting equipment? Hand me down uniforms? Civilian fund drives to replace destroyed personal items? We support our troops? (sigh)