JoB
can we agree to disagree on that one?
i think there are things far more unpatriotic and harmful to our soldiers than burning a flag. And they are not fighting for a flag. They are fighting for our country and rights every citizen is guaranteed by our constitution.
It may be an abuse of those rights to burn the American flag, but it is not a crime. It is inflammatory to burn a flag (not meant to be a pun) but that’s the point, isn’t it. It gets attention. I wouldn’t choose to do it, but i can certainly see why some people would.
I think our troops know how we feel about them by the things we do that directly affect them.. and the huge increase in suicide attempts in Iraq by our troops there tells me a great deal about what we aren’t doing for them. And that doesn’t even begin to address the suicide rate once they return home.
We show them respect and support by supplying them with the best equipment, the best physical and mental health care, paying them well, honoring their discharge dates, honoring the same commitments as to length and number of tours for the guard troops as for the regular troops… etc…
so far, the only “troops” in Iraq to be so guaranteed to be outfitted and treated with respect are the mercenary core under Blackwater… and by the way, the American taxpayer directly foots the bill for the majority of them. We pay them very well.
We are funding and treating mercenaries who are not accountable even to the US Military better than we treat our own soldiers. And those mercenaries are creating some of the problems our troops face there. Not cool! I think that tells our soldiers more about how we feel about them than whether someone at home protests the war by burning a flag.
Those rights are what our military is supposed to be fighting for… even in Iraq.
we show our respect for our soldiers when they get home by providing them with timely and first rate services rewarding the sacrifices they made for us. because there is no getting around the fact that serving in the Iraq war in our military is a huge sacrifice… the extent of which we hadn’t imagined. The brain traumas from the blasts alone will impair thousands for the rest of their lives.
There are sacrifices we are asking there that really are too much to ask of anyone.
I think we need to put our money where our mouth is and actually support our soldiers… because they are fighting for us. We may not agree with this war… but we can’t dismiss our responsibility to them because of that. That is patriotism in action.
As for the agreeing to disagree… another way of looking at protests at home against the war is that patriotic Americans are showing our troops they care enough about them to want to get them out of there.
just another point of view.