Honor Our Troops With Your Time and Attention - Not Cliches

I have an idea. Let’s agree to never again use the playful description, “years young”. John McCain constantly referred to his mother as “ninety-six years young.” I get it – we all do, but it’s no longer funny and it’s just pathetically cliché. So, lets all agree to never use it.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I will not high-five you either. It screams ‘1988’ and ‘white guy on a couch with a bag of chips’. I will ‘fist bump’ you for the moment, but that is wearing out its welcome too.

Realizing that I am pushing my luck here, can we also stop saying that the troops in Iraq are defending our freedom? The troops in Afghanistan are fighting to suppress an enemy that would threaten our freedoms, but that war effort is a disintegrating and ever increasing exercise in ‘making it up as we go.’ But compared to our efforts in Iraq they fight a more dignified and focused war.

The troops in Iraq are not defending our freedoms. Now before you call me anti-American or navigate off of this page out of protest understand that my reverence and admiration for our troops is not up for debate. Our military troops are brave, honorable and without question, selfless for the sacrifices they willingly and sometimes over and over take on for their country.

It is often said and written that they are defending my rights to express this very position. They say that men and women are dying in Ramaili and Haditha and Baghdad defending my right to spout my opinions in these pages. Its just not so. They are not defending our freedoms. Instead, and sadly, they are defending our interests. Not yours or mine directly, but they are being sent to fight and die and lose limbs for our national self-interests. They are sacrificing supremely in defense of our national will and our insistence of imposing it upon others.

Whether it is ego or oil or nationalism run amuck, our war effort in Iraq has been anything but defense of our freedoms. When challenged, the Bush administration has often pointed to the fundamentalist religious leaders in Iraq and neighboring Iran’s (just in case) increasing and radical control of their government. Meanwhile back at home, our religious leaders could provide a list as long as your arm while this nation would be better suited with a Christian agenda, an agenda chock full of religious intolerance and the robbing of the civil liberties of select groups such as women, minorities and homosexuals. They could call them… oh, I don’t know… infidels.

Once again, I digress…

For our troops to defend something other than our freedom is not to say that their efforts are any less noble. It is possible to fight with honor and distinction as a nation when our freedoms are not at stake. It has been argued that our involvement in the Pacific during World War II had nothing to do with a Japanese threat or desire to impose their will on our culture. We certainly had to get involved and fight. Defending the rights and lives of others is perhaps a more noble cause than defending our own interests. Harry Truman knew this better than anyone. He considered and lived with the knowledge that ending the war with Japan meant ending the lives of thousands of civilians. History will never view Truman as anything but noble and honorable.

If anything, our troops deserve that we as a nation understand exactly what they are fighting for. To say that they are defending our freedom is painting it with the broadest brush available. Removing a tyrant dictator and attempting to deliver freedom to a region is a defined and honorable description. It also focuses the inevitable criticism and opposition directly where it should be – away from the brave troops and right at the administration pushing the buttons and spending the lives.

There will be some that will blast my contention as anti-American and even treason. They will tell you that my words prove my disdain for the troops. They would paint me with that same broad brush. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am amazed at the level of commitment and honor with which these men and women serve. They are true heroes. They are to be honored and saluted every day – not just one day a year. But they deserve the extra time that it takes the rest of us to truly understand their duty and sacrifice. If my freedom to speak or write of protest or criticize the government of this country I love so much were ever in true peril, I have no doubt that it would be bravely defended. To all of our veterans; thank you and God bless you and your service. We are all better for it.