Do you think the republicans REALLY give a fuck about the troops?

[Philosoraptor]

They are always screaming about supporting the troops and cramming it down our throats and calling us Nazis if we dissent, but here we are with 3,400 dead soldiers and 25,000 permanently crippled soldiers, who really cares about the troops, the ones who want them to stay and die miserably, or the ones who want their needless suffering to end?

Are you sick to fucking death of the 'support the troops' mantra yet?

[C_U_L8R]

1. Republicans love that OTHER people's kids are dying

so they fill their gastanks and gourge their stomachs.
Even better if they can make a Halliburton sized profit on it at the same time.

[bdamomma]

2. yea, are their kids fighting in this filthy war????

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I think if they do generally, it's in the abstract.

They care about numbers, statistics, and scores. It's like gauging the success of a game and they don't see the participants as viable individuals with past personal histories, parents, lovers/spouses, siblings, children, friends or how they have contributed to other people's lives in civilian life. They can't grieve over one life because it is beyond their ken of understanding the situation.

[Philosoraptor]

4. They see the troops as players on a football field.

I swear they do, and true fans hate to see their team lose.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. Exactly.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. I don't believe Republican Congressmen do

The men and women (and kids) who serve in the military are paid lip-service but actual support is not forth-coming. I doubt that counselling services are adequate for frontline and demobbed servicemen and servicewomen. Veterans never seem to get all the stuff they were promised, free healthcare, free college tuition etc. Also wasn't frontline pay for troops cut in the last GOP Congress?

I think that there are people who vote GOP who do care for the troops on some level, such as sending aid parcels to servicemen and women, but they see the world through the prism of false consciousness, as well as voting GOP for financial (a perception of benefiting from the Bush tax-cuts) and cultural (maintaining white heterosexist patriarchy) self-interest.

I used to think that owing to John McCain's experiences in the military and how he suffered as a POW that he'd actually care about the troops. When he voted for legal torture it certainly disspelled that notion.

I share your anger that in this topsy-turvy world, "supporting the troops" means supporting a continuation of policies which will see more troops die in a "surge" (a careful euphemism for 'escalation').

[KharmaTrain]

6. They Hide Behind The Troops

Like they hide behind the flag and crosses and other symbols that enable them to avoid reality and responsibility. So much easier to put on the "support the troop" magnet on the gas guzler than to make a real sacrafice in either blood or treasure. They want a certain world and have created a parallel universe where it exists...our problem is there's too much reality in our reality.

[AndyA]

7. I'm sure there aren't many GOP kids in Iraq or Afghanistan fighting the "war on terra"

They're too good for that.

Other people can send their kids to die, GOP kids stay home and belittle Progressives and condemn liberals because of their beliefs. The fact that their parents are aiding and abetting a crazy murderer in an illegal war doesn't seem to register with them.

Neither does the fact that terrorism has become more rampant since the invasion of Iraq. People who would not have normally been involved in terrorism have become involved due to their hatred of George Bush.

George Bush is the real terrorist. He invaded a sovereign nation without cause. There is no excuse for that.

[Dhalgren]

8. It is an odd question, that.

I mean, do Republicans "care for" their doormen? Do they "care for" their maids or their gardeners, or the local Wal-Mart greeter, their beauticians, their barbers, the guys who clear out their septic tanks? Do Republicans "give a fuck" about their servants?" I kinda doubt that they do...

[Hubert Flottz]

9. They USE the troops...

Then they abuse the vets...

[hobbit709]

10. They support them through rhetoric

When it comes to action they support them the way I support a cockroach in my cupboard. They stomp all over them.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. I didn't vote because while I don't think they give a shit about the troops, I also don't

think they hate them. They just don't care. Just pawns, tools, to be used in political campaigning and posturing.

It would be different if their kids were "the troops".

[sarge43]

12. No they don't hate them

It's worse. Except when they are useful for political or propaganda reasons, republicans are utterly indifferent to them.

[moondust]

13. It's not the troops they care about.

It's the increased profits they pocket whenever they can grow the military-industrial complex. The troops are just the exploitable facade.

[ThomWV]

15. If they cared about the troops the troops would not be in Iraq

Pretty obvious.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

16. This is not liberating a country...

This is a hold-up gone bad. They Bush Administration basically used the U.S. military as their "crew" to rob Iraq of its natural resources. Unfortunately, the guy behind the country in Iraq was packing some heat (tip of the hat to the NRA) and they've been defending themselves.

Caught in an obvious crime, the Bush Administration has wrapped the whole fiasco in the flag to make it look like something it wasn't. But the analogy ends here, because every day we remain in Iraq, Halliburton and its progeny make millions.

Let's do some fun math for the Year 2008, when Bush has officially requested $140 billion for the war in Iraq. Count in the inevitable "emergency" appropriations and siphoning money from other sources, and you're probably looking at $175 billion for the war. That comes to just a shade under $500 million per day. Now much of that is the legitimate expenses of paying and providing for troops in the field, but it also includes payments to contractors.

But current estimates suggest that, so far, about 5-10% of what we've spent on Iraq has been lost, unaccounted for, or just plain swindled through over-charging. So let's split the difference. Let's say that 7.5% of what we spend on Iraq is going down the black hole and right into Dick Cheney's pockets. That's about $350,000 per day. Every day. For that kind of money, Republicans are willing to sacrifice the lives of every man and woman in uniform.

Bank on it.

[soothsayer]

17. Repubs don't trust the world, so they like armies. Dems don't trust big bizness,

so we like unions.

[porphyrian]

18. Not if you go by their actions. - n/t

[TwilightGardener]

19. A handful of them do--the ones who opposed the surge and/or

the war. The rest of them cynically use the troops as pawns to keep us from opposing Chimpy's immoral and failed war policy.

[11 Bravo]

20. This is ridiculous, of course they do!

They have a vested interest in ensuring that at least enough troops remain alive to fill up a gymnasium or hangar in order to serve as a backdrop for the jug-eared little prick's next photo-op.

[leftofthedial]

21. I think they just don't care at all one way or the other

the troops, like everyone and everything else on earth, are just something they can use to make money. They reserve hatred for anyone who tries to curb their insatiable lust for power and wealth.

[genie_weenie]

22. Of course they don't except in their diseased minds,

were their internal monologue screams, "It's the Dems who don't care about the troops! Dems are evil! It's the Dems!I love the troops."

But saying I Support the Troops is a cover for their actions, which consistently harm the troops and treat them as so much chattel.It is also a way to reinforce the belief they are True Patriots. As if saying it again and again makes it true. As if saying the Honorable Mr. Bush makes him so...

But the phrase Support the Mission doesn't have the visceral emotional appeal and does not have the power to put an Anti-War person on the defensive...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=734461&mesg_id=734461

[Philosoraptor]

23. ...................