Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Support the Troops, Dammit
I'm all for supporting the brave men and women who volunteered for military service and have been sent to a war of choice that our government has been less than honest about. They are doing something that I could not muster the strength within me to do. And it pains me to hear of the needless deaths and maimings that continually occur, even after the historic flowering of democracy that came with the Iraqi elections last month. But I get a little huffy whenever I see a monstrous SUV on the road, guzzling a gallon of gas every 8 or 9 miles, with one of those yellow ribbing support-the-troops magnets on its tailgate. NPR commentator Bob Sommers, whose son recently returned from Iraq, knows a little something about supporting the troops, and he's a little miffed as well. Here are some excerpts from the audio:

Support our troops! That sentence is neither a request nor a statement. It's a command. There's a hint of a dare in it that reminds me of a similar sentence. Bring it on. It's vaguely Ann Coulter-ish. Analyzing its rhetoric may be treason. Perhaps not the way I think of support. I've noticed that these magnets often appear on vehicles that display still lingering Bush/Cheney stickers. It isn't a big leap to conclude that there's something partisan about them. And the sight of all these yellow magnets is starting to bring out the worst in me. Sometimes, I want to roll down my windows and confront the drivers. I want to exclaim, "Who doesn't support the troops?! What have you done to support the troops?"

[...]

Then I realized that "Support Our Troops" is a code. It requires parsing. Here's what I think it means. Those who presumably need to be admonished to support the troops are those who opposed the decisions of this administration. "Support Our Troops" means, then, that we should be supporting the war. I believe that most yellow magnet bearers want support not just for the troops, but for the mission, the presence, and the President. Maybe the magnets should say, "Shut Up and Support Our Troops."

If any of ya'll have suggestions on truly meaningful ways to provide support--emotional and financial--to military personnel engaged in Iraq or Afghanistan, I'd love to hear them and compile them on this blog.