What The Left Really Thinks Of The Troops

13 Mar, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Some of you may want to criticize Kenneth Thiese from The Berkeley Daily Planet for the excerpt from his work that you’re about to read. While he certainly deserves it, he also deserves a great deal of credit for having the courage to say exactly what most liberals — and yes, I mean most liberals — in this country think, but don’t have the guts to say,

In the recent political battle around the Marine recruiting station in Berkeley there has been much confusion around the concept or slogan of “supporting the troops,” but opposing the unjust wars of the Bush regime. Many who oppose the Bush regime wars also say they “support the troops.” Let me say it straight out–I do not support the troops and neither should you. It is objectively impossible to support the troops of the imperialist military forces of the U.S. and at the same time oppose the wars in which they fight.

…If you “support the troops” in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the other more than 100 countries in which they are located, you also objectively support U.S. hegemony in the world. I believe that the vast majority of people who say they support the troops do not wish to support U.S. imperialism, but that is what they are really doing by putting forth the slogan of “support the troops.”

We need to oppose the recruitment of men and women into the military. We need to support resisters within the military who have realized what they are doing and now choose to resist the role of the U.S. military.

…We need to expose that those in the U.S. military are trained to be part of a “killing machine.” While not every member of the military is an individual murderer, they are all part of a system that commits war crimes, including aggressive wars, massacres, rape, and other crimes against humanity, all in the service of U.S. imperialism. The bottom line is that even if these people are relatives or friends, you can not support the troops without also supporting the objective role that these troops play in the imperialist system.

The only difference between this guy and most of the other liberals in this country is that he’s at least honest enough to publicly take the Left’s views to their logical conclusion.

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs for the story.