In every war, this country tries to force its citizens to "support the troops." As a little kid during the Gulf War, I can remember getting stickers with a picture of an eagle on them that read: "Support Our Troops." I didn't really understand what that meant, but since stickers were really exciting, I put them on everything in sight.
Now that I'm a little older and a little wiser I can understand what the stickers mean. I still put them all over everything, but it's due more to a fascination with adhesives than a desire to support the troops. It's hard to decide where to stand. On one hand, the soldiers are putting their lives in jeopardy. On the other hand, I remember what the high school kids going into the military were like.
To illustrate, let me relay the story of two such boys - we'll just call them Pip and Pap. I spent a good amount of time with the two ROTC kids during high school. During that time, they made it abundantly clear to me that they were planning on going into the Army and that they were very stupid individuals.
Pip and Pap used to spend a lot of time telling me about their ROTC activities. These activities included cleaning guns, loading guns, naming guns, sleeping with guns and going to the shooting range with their guns. They would brag to me about how many one-handed pushups they could do, the amazing teamwork-building exercises that they knew and how they never washed their shirts because it was a tradition.
Of course, not all of the soldiers are like Pip and Pap. Everyone has different motivations for joining the military. People want to earn money for college, continue a family tradition or get in shape for their careers as porn stars. A lot of the people in the armed services are regular, nice and friendly people. Then again, some of them are just crazy.
Look at what happened on March 23. A U.S. soldier allegedly threw grenades into his fellow soldiers' tents. He injured 14 soldiers and killed two. Where is the motivation to support the troops when you have a guy throwing grenades at his fellow servicemen?
It would be crazy to say that, because of this isolated incident, no one should support the troops. But this wasn't an isolated incident. The Army doesn't exactly have a sparkling record when it comes to the treatment of its members.
The Army is in the middle of a hazing scandal that has been going on for years. A few years back, military men were caught on videotape driving railroad spikes into their coworkers' chests. How can you trust someone like that to be looking out for the good of the Iraqi people? If you believe that they really just want to free these people from a tyrant, you might as well help O.J. Simpson look for "the real killers."
Let's not forget their history of discriminating against women and homosexuals. Just because someone says that it is the patriotic thing to do, you don't have to support a group of bigots and meatheads.
It's hard to decide whether or not to support the troops. A lot of our soldiers are good people, but some of them are out of their minds. I don't wish any harm on them, but then again, they don't need to fear the Army of Iraq as much as they need to fear each other.
Christopher Fanning is a journalism sophomore. Reach him at christopher.fanning@asu.edu.
