NPR asked an interesting question today. "What does it mean to support our troops". My answer seems simple and often it is the most tossed about term, but in a nut shell I feel the best way we can support our troops is to bring the kids home. There are plenty of Neo-hippies who use that term alot, but I think what I mean goes a bit deeper. If we deploy troops with a faulty or incomplete knowledge of the nationalism of it's people's we are planning on wasting lives. From way back to the 'John Company' the arabs had been treated as a client people. Did we actually expect to go in with military might and not be cast as invaders? This little bit of knowledge and insight is what we pay for in our Government.
Do not get me wrong, all you neo-hippie and ultra-patriot types, I think Saddam had to go. He may not have been doing Business with Al-Quaeda, but only because they weren't buying what he had to sell, but he was selling to Hamas, Darfur, or any regime with liquid cash and an arab cause. Unfortunately we would have been better served by toppling the Government from the inside, while our force, that is much smaller than it was in the early '90s, wrapped up whatever is on their plate at the time.
So in the end to support our troops we should praise their efforts to bring themselves and their brothers and sisters of the sword home alive. We also must hold our Government accountable not to take the loyalty of these brave souls for granted, nor should their sacrafices be wasted as they go before us and defend our way life.