Fallacy of War Protests

Vindication is mine.

I think I have to disagree a bit with Ben at Hammerswing. He seems to have the take that Joel Stein is patriotism of Against the War people. That is not what he is saying. He is saying the same thing that I have been saying for nearly 3 years...and what the Left has been saying I'm wrong about.

I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

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.

Exactly. It is not only a wussy position, it is not honestly possible.

The ONLY reason anti-Iraq war people claim to be supporting the war is as Stein says...

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

See, the War and the troops in the War are a package...all or nothing.

And I am vindicated by a flaming liberal. The end of the world MUST be near.