Quote:
Rudenski,

Are you suggesting that we do not support the troops, because some “will kill innocent human beings”?


Yes... That is what I am suggesting....

Here is a quote I use when that jingoist phrase, "Support the Troops," is used;

Quote:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmond Burke, member of British Parliament, criticized misgovernment and corruption. (1729-1797)


Some 650,000 Iraqis have died of mostly gunshot wounds since my nation invaded their country. How many men, women and children need to be butchered before I should stop supporting the troops? Six million Muslims? Seven Million? If we listen to the Israeli Nationalists, that number will be when not one Muslim is left alive on earth. What magical number is it that trips the threshold of too much slaughter before I should no longer support the troops? Over 3,000 American troops have been killed for that phrase "support the troops" while 70% of those troops do not support the war. Those troops are coming home and many thousands are coming home with missing limbs, radiation sickness from depleted uranium, and thousands more are returning emotionally bankrupt. There is no real support for the troops when they come home but while those troops are killing terrorists(anyone Muslim), it is implied that our troops are to be supported?

The only statistically significant group of people in America that still support the war in Iraq are Fundamentalist Christians. Some 70% of Fundamentalist Christians still believe the war in Iraq is a war of good against evil and they believe America is good while Muslim nations are evil. Before my Near Death Experience,
//www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=562823#i
this is also what I believed. Propaganda coming from religious leaders to support troops in whatever treachery and murder those troops do while wearing a uniform makes otherwise peaceful Christians the whip in an otherwise unpopular war that keeps the support for the war going. Supporting the troops is a propaganda tool meant to eliminate debate about the actions of troops and it is very effective. I believe in supporting troops who are refusing to murder anymore, and I believe in supporting troops who are returning with serious injuries, health problems, and psychological problems from the war rather than supporting brutes who murder indiscriminately but the best way to support troops in my estimation is to bring them home.

Quote:
Encarta
jingo
- belligerent nationalist: an extreme patriot, especially somebody who advocates hostility toward other countries
jingo (n, hawk)
warmonger, belligerent, jingoist, aggressor, saber-rattler, jingo


I was part of the propaganda machine while I was in the military and knew how it worked. You only need a handful of zealots to raise the flag and otherwise peaceful citizens will shut their mouth even while zealots do horrific an unconscionable acts of murder in the name of nationalism. The name of God is often thrown around as the author of that zealotry. The belt buckles of the NAZI SS troops in World War II had "God is with Us" inscribed on them.

The "Support our Troops" jingo doesn't even need God in the catch phrase to shut down any conversation. Implied is that if you do not support the troops then you are anti-American dream and for most Americans, "The American Dream" is their God. The term "Support the Troops" is used by Jingoist politicians and priests, while even the average brainwashed citizen uses that phrase, "support the troops" to shut down any accountability for the actions of the military. Implied in that phrase is to shut your mouth and go back to work to support the troops with your industry and taxes. This brainwashing technique is very effective. In World War II Germany, jingoist phrases were used to "support the fatherland" while millions of Jews, gypsies, retarded, blind, deaf, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, or anyone believed to be inferior were being exterminated by those soldiers. It was a dirty little open secret while jingoisms and fear kept the average German's mouth shut. If I stay silent then by my silence I give the zealot true believers energy. This I will not do.

I was inside the propaganda machine when I was one of the troops but following my NDE, I quit identifying myself with those soldiers around me. I no longer wanted to participate in harming others. My God who is love took the wind out of the sail for my desire to kill the enemies of my Nation. Some day, my countrymen may even hate me for not supporting troops when the death toll exceeds a million lives but staying silent is not an option for me today. Silence in the face of tyranny is tacit approval of that tyranny. If I am going to love my neighbors as myself, I feel it is necessary to act on their behalf. I would not support the murder of my own family or myself so I in turn will not support the murder of the families of Iraq. If I am to love the God who is love then how would that manifest in my life? In my NDE, I saw everyone as an orb of light. Iraqis are not soulless creatures who need to be exterminated...their souls are made of the same stuff as me...love. Supporting their murder is certainly not any kind of way to manifest love. War begets war...

There is another war on the horizon. Iran is now in the sights of the Jingoist Christians and they may get their war by provoking the Iranians into some act of aggression. If they will not attack us then we may attack ourselves and say they did. This is how wars are started. When that attack occurs, I may be called a traitor for not defending the next war but the only way there will ever be peace is when we all choose not to fight. I may even be called a coward for my choice but in the end, when time is rolled up and my life is judged for my choices, I want to stand before the God who is love and take with me choices to love when I could have chosen the absence of love... This is my journey...