Controversial Topic Discussion

Hi Frieda (great handle, by the way),

I first want to make it clear that by saying I do not support the troops, I am in no way saying I wish harm to come to anyone. No one has suggested that I was saying such a thing, but I realized I hadn't stated clearly that I wasn't and thought I probably should.

I also realize that your son and other soldiers have contractual obligations to the government they must fulfill or risk penalties. I am sympathetic to this situation. However, it doesn't really get to the heart of the problem I have with the statement that people should support the troops.

Let me also point out that I am not saying I will hold it against individual members of the armed forces and consider them 'bad' people for having served in this or any other particular war. I am sure there are both people whom I would like, personally, and those I would dislike who have served in any particular war, whether I agree with the reasoning behind the war or not.

The question I pose of "Why support the troops?" is of a more philosophical nature. Let's look at it from another perspective, the one I alluded to in my previous post of a German citizen in the 1940's. Here again I want to clarify that I am not comparing soldiers fighting in Iraq to Nazi soldiers in any way other than to draw an analogy, something in the vein of a reductio ad absurdum, in order to illustrate the problems inherent with the "support the troops" mentality.

It is 1940 and I have a son who is a German soldier. He has been assigned by the Nazi leadership, a group to which he is contractual obliged to serve, to a position as a guard at a concentration camp. As part of his duties he must assist in ushering prisoners into the ovens. He may be morally opposed to doing such a thing, but he has an obligation to fulfill as a German soldier. Should I support him?

By this example, I come to the conclusion that it is not such a simple truth that one should support the troops even if they do not support the war. From this I must then question by what criteria I determine the appropriate times in which I should support the troops and the times in which I should not. The only criteria by which I can make such a distinction is to consider what it is the troops are doing and whether or not I think it to be a morally justified effort they are engaged in. I can not simply support troops because they happen to be my countrymen, friends, brothers, sisters, sons or daughters. This is not to say I can not hope for their safety, but it is to say that in disagreeing with what it is they are doing, whether obliged to or not, I can not rightly support them.

I am not completely sure what it is soldiers who find themselves in such situations should do, and even if I was sure, in my own mind, it does not follow that they necessarily should do what I think they should do. But, just as I can not rightly tell them that they should not fulfill their obligations if they are, or I am, morally opposed to a particular war, I do not accept that I should support them regardless of my moral stance on a particular war. To ask me to do such a thing is to ask me to set aside what I consider right or wrong in favor of blind patriotism.

I hope this helps to clarify my position. I also hope that all the people involved in this war find themselves safe at home as soon as possible. Until then I will hope for their safety in the situation in which they find themselves, but as long as I see the war effort itself as morally unsupported, I can not offer the troops my support.