Just because you have the sticker on your car...

More and more often, when I drive by cars with "Support Our Troops" stickers on them, I wish I could have the emotional coping mechanisms of a New York cab driver and roll down my window to yell, "What the fuck are you thinking, you hateful, banner-wavering, warmongering idiot?" But I don't. Not yet at least, though I do tend to be a lot less accomodating when they try to merge. Why? Not because I don't think our troops should be "supported", whatever that actually means, but because I am sick and tired of the idiocy and hypocrisy of the types of people who tend to slap them on the back of their SUVs.

At that time the war began I wrote an email to my friend about why I thought the war against Iraq was a bad idea. It went something like this: 1. a lot of innocent people will die and who are we to say that their deaths are just. 2. Iraq is a complex country, with various ethnic groups whose relationships with each other are bound to be destabilized by the war. 3. Um, why now? What has Iraq have to do with 9/11? 4. America has a history of going into countries, messing them up and then leaving before they fix what they had broken because the same people who want war can't stomach American soldiers coming home in bodybags.

So if you are pro-war, or have recently "flip-flopped" and decided that maybe the war's not going so well, here's why I think you are an idiot:

1. I got a B- in the only international affairs class I ever took and nothing that happend in Iraq in the last 3 years has surprised me.
2. I marched at the anti-war protests in March 2003 with thousands of moms, dads, grandmas and war vets and we all "supported the troops" and thought that this war was a bad idea.
3. You put that sticker on your SUV and you get a little teary-eyed when you see 18 year-old kids coming home in bodybags, but if you were asked to dish out the $800 that this war is costing every person in this country, you'd throw a hissy fit on AM radio.

Ok, so what has precipitated this emotional tirade (other than a relaxing weekend followed by the returning stress of a new quarter)???

There is an article in the current Time magazine about a killing of Iraqi civilians in their home by US Marines. The incident is pending investigation and Time magazine attempts to do give an unbiased presentation of all sides of the issue. All we know is that 15 unarmed men, women and children are dead, a 9 year-old survivor witnessed the killing of her family, a group of young Marines who likely did not join the military to kill civilians are fucked up for life, and this is a story that no news agency, except Time, is willing to touch. (Ironically, this story can be found on the bottom end of Time magazine's website, right after a very important war-related article titled: "The War on Fat")

So what does it mean when a bunch of 20 year-olds get demoralized by a pointless war and destroyed by the deaths of their friends enough to shoot at 3 year old kids? Nothing that we already didn't know.