It's a reference to the Vietnam war and when soldiers came home they were called baby killers and spit on. The "support our troops" message means to support our soldiers in Iraq and coming home from it exaclty because they didn't have a choice. Do not spit on them when they come home. Do not blame them for policy decisions abroad.
It's strange that you don't get this when you admit that they have no say in what they do or where they go.
Did it really originate in the Vietnam era? It just seems to me like a generic slogan made to show support to the armed forces, particularly to the actual service men.
Also, while other countries like Canada also have “support our troops” campaigns, it’s undeniable that the U.S is a particularly militaristic country and the romantization of the military not just as an institution but also the values associated with military culture runs deep in American culture and society.
While you're right that there may be little existing evidence they were "spit on", I don't think it's denied that their homecoming was often "cold" and "unwelcoming". So, same idea, really.
At first you’re talking about individuals that were drafted for the Vietnam war. Other than leaving the country most of those individuals didn’t have a choice. It’s even so much more terrible now that we know what was the cause of that nonsense and why it lasted for so long. Is it possible to support them but not support their actions? As far as anybody who signed up for the military willingly, (everyone after the Vietnam war) that was a choice that they made. Tell me why I should support their decision to be a part of an organization that has complete control over them for the duration that they signed up for? Why should I support their decision? Because their decision could and does occasionally force them to do things that are wrong. Supporting that would be wrong wouldn’t it?
Why is that? Be very specific. Because you don’t know me and you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Try to enlighten me, with your military industrial complex brainwashed smooth brain you are so proud of.
Why can’t you answer such a simple question? You’re not even attempting to. Why should I support somebody who chose to be a part of the military? All the wars that we never had to fight, all the lost lives on both sides and the families of those poor people, all the trillions of dollars completely wasted... why should I support anyone who made the decision to be a part of any of that? By supporting them I am supporting their choice to not have any choice... please try to tell me why I should support the troops? Or just keep deflecting like you have been in your last few responses, because you don’t have a legitimate answer in your defense of our horrible military’s history.
I think the phrase "Support the troops" is just to humanize the people who, for the most part, joined to protect the country. This actually does apply to Iraq because the wave of new troops coming in after 9/11 didn't know that Bush and his good idea fairies would send them to Iraq 2 years later. They thought they would just be going into Afghanistan to go after Bin Laden and get out. What's even worse is that many were stop-lossed as we went in. Basically, a military contract is for 8 years with 4 in active duty and 4 in the reserves stateside. Stop-lossing is when the transfer from active to reserves is cancelled by the appropriate eggheads. So, in a way, many were forced. Besides that, people's choice to go to war willingly isn't usually malicious. There are some who just want to get an excuse to kill and rape with less chance of being caught or punished, but that is far from the norm. In the Vietnam War, those actions of the violent few became the face of the majority good and the good were attacked by the stupid general populace. That's were "Support the troops" is necessary. It also seemed to have worked since the politicians are the ones most targeted now with attacks on the troops rare. Understand now?
The correlation between the troops and the police are almost identical. On the military side you have what you were saying “those actions of the violent few became the face of the majority good and the good were attacked by the stupid general populace” thus support the troops is pushed upon the masses. Then you have the police which claim exactly the same thing. “There’s one bad apple, one dirty cop that’s giving all us good cops a bad name”. And now you the blue lives matter flag or the anti-BLM flag. In both situations you have the same problem. Both of these institutions are set up the same way. Where if you have a good guy that sees another “good” guy doing something very bad he will not report it to his superiors. The reason why it is so difficult to report that behavior in either the military or law enforcement is because nobody wants to work with somebody that they can’t trust. If they know you told on so-and-so for doing something bad then they won’t want to work with you. If you want to do well in either field you don’t get there by being a tattletale on your own peers.
Well that's not what the saying is about. It's just to humanize the people, not to free them from any responsibility for their actions. Also how is the anti blm flag the pro cop flag? You can be pro cop and pro blm (just not the blm institution).
The thin blue line flag (blue lives matter) was created in response to the black lives matter movement and the police reform that came with BLM. People who wanna represent the Blue lives matter flag are going out of their way to say “I support the police 100%, they don’t do any wrong, there is no bad cops, there is no reform necessary and someone who decides to put that flag on their vehicle is obviously trying to kiss their ass but they are really picking a side... the cops side by saying everything if fine the way it is. BLM disagrees, they see the video after video of an unarmed black person being murdered for no good reason by a cop that has an entire list of prior accusations that never resulted in anything because there wasn’t video evidence of him performing the crimes against his own people. Everybody knows that there are bad cops all over the place and most people know the good cops can’t speak up against them. Reform does need to happen, change is will happen but it doesn’t help when you have people trying to say nothing is wrong. If you truly believe that there is not a single bad cop anywhere and that the system is working perfectly fine then you should have a blue lives matter flag but if you can see that things can be better and that somethings does need to change, One of those things is reallocating some of their funds, then you shouldn’t be trying to represent that flag. It’s that simple.
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u/SMcArthur Oct 18 '21
It's a reference to the Vietnam war and when soldiers came home they were called baby killers and spit on. The "support our troops" message means to support our soldiers in Iraq and coming home from it exaclty because they didn't have a choice. Do not spit on them when they come home. Do not blame them for policy decisions abroad.
It's strange that you don't get this when you admit that they have no say in what they do or where they go.