Published:June 13th, 2007 02:42 EST

Support Our Troops?

"Support Our Troops" is a refrain displayed on bumper stickers and window signs across the United States in time of war.  In a neighborhood that adjoins a military base, that command means blue stars hanging in windows and yellow ribbons cinching trees in the front yards.  To a daughter in a military family, it means writing emails to both a brother and a father on the front lines.  And to some American protesters of the war the government is currently waging, that little phrase is a symbol of unthinking acceptance of American violence and force.

For waging war means subduing and killing other human beings, and any distinction between killing for a cause that one finds abhorrent and killing in cold blood must be a fine one, at best.  And, as a high school classmate once claimed, "I never asked anyone to fight and to kill on my behalf."  Is it thus inevitable that protesting this American war means also protesting and dishonoring its American fighters?

In fact, such an attitude towards soldiers and veterans is neither inevitable nor sustainable.   For all Americans live in a country that is too powerful to ignore.  Their peace has been bought, for better or for worse, at the price of diplomacy and blood.  Even the United States Declaration of Independence, which affirms its' citizens' right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, implies friction and struggle.

The United States was built on the rationale of gaining peace for itself through force, if need be.  And that belief is still lodged firmly in our law, which provides for a national military force; in our culture, which pardons killing in the case of self defense; and in our foreign policy, which, in recent years, has consisted of declaring the right of the United States to act to protect its own interests, with or without international sanction.  American soldiers of the present day are still in service of this idea: that peace can be won through force.

Can dissenting Americans join a protest march and still send care packages to their soldiers in Iraq with a clear conscience?  Yes, if they understand the history of the way of life that they enjoy.  This war has been justified through that same worldview that has guaranteed peace in the United States for years.  It is the worldview of the Declaration that presupposes it must fight external enemies to safeguard its citizens' rights.  Ending one war will not change United States history.  American protesters must realize that the use of force they deplore did not begin with these soldiers, and that those individuals should not receive the punishment.

If one is to be a fully-informed citizen, one must understand the implications of a position for or against this war, or all war.   And, a fully-informed citizen realizes what a high school classmate refused to: that the American way of life has been bought by the work and sacrifices of many others.   An informed dissenter could both thank a military veteran with humility and then set out to serve his or her nation by advocating for a culture of peace instead of one that bargains with force.

Every American living peacefully in his or her country today is benefiting from military actions of the past, for no one ceases to be a citizen of the United States because he or she disagrees with his or her representative government.

Whether a citizen agrees or disagrees, that informed opinion should translate into bold action, action in the tradition of the founders who pledged even their lives to one another in support of their conviction.  Support our troops and join the fight-- or join the fight to bring them home.