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on supporting the troops
Across the country, from the metropolitan areas to the
small towns of rural America, you can see thousands of
‘support our troops’ signs. And while unfortunately
many anti-war folks are starting to take down their
yard signs and put their buttons away, the other side
is dusting off the marching band gear and passing out
yellow ribbons in preparation of the first batches of
U.S. troops coming home from the Middle East. There
will be parades and glib commentary on the evening
news about how no matter what our views were on the
recent war, we should now all come together to welcome
back and support our troops.
‘Support our troops.’ It’s a rather clever slogan that
the capitalists have come up with to try and “shame”
anti-war activists into shutting their mouths so as
not to “offend” our brothers and sisters, victims of
the economic draft, who are in the armed forces and
sent to fight Wall Street’s wars. It’s clever because
it ducks the political questions that the anti-war
movement raises. And it also capitalizes on the fact
that hundreds of thousands of working class families
across the country have sons and daughters, brothers
and sisters, wives and husbands who are in the
military – making it a very emotional question for
them.
And while it’s clever in these ways, it’s an
incredibly dishonest ploy. It implies that the
anti-war movement does not support the troops, and
that in fact only those who support putting them into
the meat grinder of imperialist war do – which is
practically the same thing as implying that the Klan
is the best defend or civil rights!
That the anti-war movement supports the troops is
something that we do very much have to be vocal about,
but the only way to do that is to demand that the
occupation of Iraq be ended, and that all of the
troops be brought home now! Donning yellow ribbons
and turning out for the victory parades is not the way
to do that, and we have to do all that we can to
explain that to our co-workers and neighbors.
The article above was written by Adam Ritscher of Lake Superior YSA.
