Conservatives Do Not Support Our Troops

Opinion

One of the greatest lies in recent history is that Republicans “support our troops”.

Republicans have consistently tried to cut or minimize support for the VA. Jeff Sessions, now Attorney General, once referred to the VA as “an entitlement" that "we cannot afford”. The VA was desperately underfunded to deal with the influx of wounded veterans from the second Iraq war, but Republicans fought against increased spending. When democrats briefly gained control of congress, they increased the VA budget twice in two years. Republicans in the senate later blocked a bill to increase spending to help VA backlog for medical care. The bill would have cost less than Trump’s border wall, and 10% of what we pay each year in corporate welfare, but the Republicans said we could not afford it.

It is not just veteran’s healthcare, but protecting and supporting our troops in general. The Bush administration sent our troops into the second Iraq war with inadequate body and HUMV armor, and rather than demanding we rapidly address the issue, instead Rumsfeld famously justified, “You go to war with the army you have…”. During that war, profiteering for Dick Cheney’s old company Haliburton/KBR led to soldiers being injured by poorly built facilities – facilities that were lower quality and more expensive then facilities built by the army. Bush’s stop loss policy forced our soldiers to remain in the service past their commitment and return to the warzone again and again.

Yet, for nearly two decades now, whenever anyone questions use of military force, they are called “weak” and told they are “not supporting our troops”. Liberals have allowed this lie to be spread, and too many Americans have accepted this lie and repeated it.

Sending our troops to a poorly planned or pointless war is not supporting them, it is betraying them. Yes, we should be proud of our troops and support them (the soldiers, not the policy) no matter what war they are sent to; but we not only can, but must, debate military policy.

The Iraq war cost over 4,000 American lives and led to over 30,000 of our soldiers to be wounded. It cost our country over two trillion dollars. Because we did not have a plan to stabilize the country after victory, it led to a country that is a weak ally and a source of terrorists, extremists, and insurgents. And this was not a country that was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Afghanistan was that country, and our more justified actions in Afghanistan were weakened by the drain of the Iraq war.

Yet, we could not debate the war, because doing so was “unpatriotic”. Those of us who wanted to save the human and financial cost of an unnecessary war were practically called traitors. Those of us who supported intervention in Afghanistan instead of Iraq were similarly shamed.

The weak and pathetic Democrats of the early aughts were so afraid of appearing unpatriotic that few of them stood up against the needless war and needless losses of our troops. Things are not much better in 2017 – Democrats generally offered only measured criticism of Trump’s Syria attack.

Another travesty committed by Republicans against our soldiers is attacks against the military records of former soldiers. They have done this to politicians on both sides of the aisle. Most recently, Donald Trump – a man who dodged military service in Vietnam – criticized John McCain’s record, despite McCain’s history as a hero and a prisoner of war. Previously, John Kerry’s military service was questioned. These men served. They deserve our thanks and respect, no matter whatever else we think of them. Period.

I am a liberal who has donated to veteran’s charities, and who stops to thank our soldiers. I consistently support spending for veterans’ benefits. Whatever I think of a war, I always support our soldiers. How many of the flag-waiving conservatives who say I am “against our troops” for questioning a war can claim to have argued or voted for veterans’ benefits or given their own time or money to help veterans? Not enough.

I have two veteran friends that will go on a tirade about “liberals not supporting our troops” almost every time any liberal policy comes up. It is not that they have information that conflicts with my points. They are just so convinced that the left is anti-veteran and anti-soldier that they won’t even have a discussion on the subject. They vote for people who then refuse to fund veterans benefits because those people say that they “support veterans”. It is a lie that hurts veterans and our whole country. Beyond the damage that it does to veterans, it causes weak liberals to feel obligated to support poorly planned, ill-advised, or illegal military actions rather than be called anti-military – whether it is Obama’s drone strikes or Trump’s expensive and ineffective Syria attack.