American citizens don’t pick the wars in which we fight. Our freely elected leaders, responding to circumstances, get us involved in wars. We go (or should go) to war as a nation. We are at war against an enemy who, just as Hitler did in the early 1930s, is clearly stating (in the Arab press) that they plan to kill every single non-Muslim; Al-Jazeera TV has an English language version–check it out.br /br /It is absolutely true that our Constitution’s First Amendment grarantees our right to dissent (peacefully) against anything. But the right to disent does not mean that we are then free of any consequences of such dissent. Can thre be any doubt that dissenting against an active war does not discourage who are presently, daily, risking their lives for us? Is not calling someone’s acts as unworthy a discouraging statement?br /br /Like any other team in a major contest, a discouraged team is more likely to loose–which in military terms means life and limb. So dissent, while a right that is protected by these very soldiers, has a natural consequence, a likely increase in the morale of our enemy (who is trying to kill our soldiers–and, later, you). This dissent helps the enemy and hurts our troops.br /br /It is logically impossible to say that one “supports the troops” while publically opposing the war. People may love and apprciate a given soldier while opposing the war, but they can’t say that the troops actions are unworthy, attack our troops morale, and encourage the enemy, and still say that they “support the troops.”br /br /I encourage all citizens to realize that our nation is at war and ask them to support our troops, not their (our) enemy.
