Democrats war against anti-military image

As they condemn the Iraq conflict, they extol the troops fighting it and vow to 'take proper care of our heroes.'
Ever since the Vietnam era, Democrats have struggled to overcome a notion the party is not just antiwar but antimilitary.

Now, sensing a chance to shed that image, Democrats are wrapping themselves in khaki and embracing the nation's fighting men and women.

Even as they press for withdrawal from Iraq, congressional Democrats have proposed more money for armored vehicles, shorter tours of duty for Reserve soldiers and expanded programs to care for veterans.

On the campaign trail, party leaders and Democratic presidential hopefuls invariably couple condemnation of the war with expressions of sympathy and support for those fighting.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops13may13,1,1859479.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

When we speak out against the war, it doesn't give aid and comfort to the enemy, as O'Liely likes to espouse. Quite the opposite. We're acknowledging the repukes' failed policy and telling the troops, "we know they fucked you, and we're working to fix it." Believe me, while there are die hard freaks of nature in the military who would disagree, there are hundreds of thousands of troops who appreciate our efforts.

The Democratic Party cannot cure the military of its Kool-Aid problem.

The Democratic Party can only try to buy the love of the military.

Such a purchase would not be good for either party. The military has got to come to grips with the fact that it is a machine that has been bent, broken, and destroyed by the GOP. The military has got to become a militia again, supporting and not replacing democracy, and NOT the corporate killing machine of conquest that Eisenhower warned against.

The military, in fact, needs deNazification, retraining in the fundamentals of the Constitution, and a basic redefinition of its mission so that the least soldier in the field can say: "That's not my job, that's not right, and I'm not going to do it!" And the commanding officer would say: "This soldier is absolutely right, who snuck these bogus orders to my troops?" And so on, all the way up the Chain of Command. Perhaps a Unionized Army (as opposed to the Union Army)?


I don't know if such a military ever existed. I don't know if such a military COULD exist. But if we want to be what we were born to be, it has to happen. Or we have to all convert to Quakerism and take our chances that most invaders would be either criminals (terrorists, if you must) or economic predators (corporate white crime).