Support Our Troops. Longmont, Colorado, 2013
I made this image in Longmont, Colorado a couple of days ago. The abandoned military recruiting storefront caught my eye. In the center and to the right, notice the flag and the two saluting soldiers with their proud, erect, military bearing and how that contrasts with the poster of what I presume might be a local soldier’s portrait on the left. Note the condition of that poster on the left. Does the contrast between the left side and the center/right side of this image imply a story or perhaps even a political commentary?
This got me to thinking about that oft-repeated slogan: “Support the Troops!”
What exactly does that phrase mean? (For the following, we have to assume that one supports the general idea of the nation-state and its inherent right to defense and self-preservation. I’ll leave a discussion of the concept of the nation-state for another day.)
Anyway, as a 21-year, career Air Force officer and pilot, I have an opinion on what it means to “Support the Troops” (of course, opinions are like nose hairs—we all have them and sometimes they aren’t very pretty).
What does it mean?
When people talk about supporting the troops, it appears to me that there is much talk of making sure they have the equipment they need…body armor, armored vehicles, the best technology in the aircraft, reliable weapons, reliable communications gear, the most effective intelligence-gathering tools, and so on.
When people talk about supporting the troops, there is also much talk about basic troop needs and home front support. We need to make sure soldiers are paid adequately, they have good medical care, their families are cared for when they deploy, they have access to counseling for PTSD, they have programs for easing the transition into civilian life and employment, and so on.
When we talk about supporting the troops, we also talk about moral support…about giving them encouragement, sending them care packages with cookies and toothpaste when they are deployed, thanking them for their service, honoring them at banquets, sports events, and at the White House, and so on.
I think all of this is wonderful—they do need the best equipment, they do need to know that they and their families will be cared for, and they do need to know that their fellow citizens support them in their service.
But, there is one key area that is rarely discussed when one talks about supporting the troops…something I believe to be even more important than the three areas I have already mentioned. What might that be, you ask? It is this:
If you really want to “Support the Troops”, then the NUMBER ONE thing you can do as a citizen of this country is to make sure, through being informed and participating in the political process, that we do not send them into harm’s way unless it is absolutely necessary.
In this regard, I think that the Powell Doctrine, formulated by General Colin Powell during the First Gulf War would be a good starting point for determining whether to send in the troops. You might ask yourself how many how many of these points were clearly answered before our invasion of Iraq that started the 2003 Second Gulf War.
The Powell Doctrine
Don’t remember the Powell Doctrine? You can go HERE for an explanation, but these are the highlights:
- Is a vital national security interest threatened?
- Do we have a clear attainable objective?
- Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
- Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
- Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
- Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
- Is the action supported by the American people?
- Do we have genuine broad international support?
These eight questions seem quite reasonable to me. Think about them the next time this country looks like it is headed toward a military conflict and lets make sure, next time, we are really supporting the troops.
A brief postscript:
Did Ghengis Khan’s people “support the troops”?
Did the Japanese citizenry “support the troops” when they invaded China in 1937 and proceeded to rape Nanking?
Did the average German citizen in 1939 “support the troops”?
Did most Soviet citizens “support the troops” when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979?
You get the idea. So, how is it that you want to support the troops in this country?
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