The Troops

I come from a military family meaning that many of my kith and kin have served in our nation's armed forces. Even my momma wore combat boots. Many of my friends have as well. Now President Obama has determined that the troops are coming home by the end of the year. That is good news. Thank you Mr. President. Too much of our troops' blood has been spent on someone else's war. I don't mourn the death of Saddam Hussein, I was glad to see him go. I am also glad to see Qaddafi go (I wish that we had got him back in the Reagan administration).

This is not a political question. It is a philosophical question. Is it proper to spend American lives for someone else's war? No and hell no. Whatever the politics and economics are "people are not potatos." Our troops are not pieces to be moved around a board and sacrificed without damn good reason. They are living, thinking human beings and American citizens that have "placed their fragile bodies between the desolation of war and the comforts of home." They should be respected and supported. The best way to support them is for We The People to require our government to issue a declaration of war so that the entire economy can be placed in the service of supporting our troops and they will not have to walk into that vile sandbox without the proper weapons and armor. We do go to war with the army that we have. Too bad we aren't at war. "War" is not a feeling or a soundbite. It is a legal action by the Congress of the United States of America. When this happens, and it hasn't happened in a long time, the country goes to work and takes care of business. We The People failed our troops by allowing our Congress and our Executive to prosecute a military action without the full backing of the United States government and economy. 10 years? Seriously people. We whipped the Empire of Japan and the Nazis in less time. This is the most powerful military machine on the planet that we are talking about. Do you really think that its total power would take more than a weekend to mop up Afghanistan and Iraq, and any of their neighbors that wanted to get in on it?

No, are troops were slaughtered and sacrificed for political expediency. Where were you? I hope that you were not part of the unwashed masses beating on a drum on the street in Santa Cruz, California. That accomplished nothing. I hope that you were pressuring your government to act in a legal manner. Doesn't seem like many of us were, now we want to complain.

We now have troops in Uganda and Gawd knows were else. Yet the silence is defeaning.