DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
By Ivan G. Goldman
“Whatever our differences in Washington, our troops and their families deserve the appreciation and the support of our entire nation.”
Those were Bush’s words in his nationwide address today. Our warrior prince asked for patience because heck, we’re just getting started. Give us a chance. If you weasels don’t like me, at least support our troops. His meaning and purpose were to perpetuate the “support our troops” device that worked so well so long. Three ghoulish words that are an accusation tangled inside a threat, pretending to exemplify sweet, positive thinking when in fact they’re an attack, an admonition, an ugly masquerade.
The three words on the stickers shitheads love to slap on their vehicles announce there are Americans out there who don’t support our troops, who wish evil things on our brave boys and girls, so maybe if the saintly, the right-minded, the true patriots all stand up and declare their loyalty, we can unmask these treasonous, terrorist-loving louts. Either you're with me, Bush tells us, or you're against the troops.
George Orwell, who predicted the next totalitarians would tell us that war is peace and freedom is slavery, would enjoy the perfect irony of “Support our troops,” a lie of demonic magnificence. It’s the Orwellian shield behind which the hard-core rockhead coalition of avid chicken hawks, pro-torture evangelicals, gun-o-maniacs, racists, anti-tax greedheads, and other disturbed geeks work out their little deals to bite off a bigger piece of the action for themselves while they feed our troops into the Iraqi trash compactor.
Today, the fourth anniversary of the worst foreign policy disaster in the history of our republic, is a good day to stand up to those words.
