Letters

To the Editor
Boston "Globe," Boston, Massachusetts

I want to thank Jeff Jacoby for his Sunday column on "supporting the troops." He has fessed up and admitted what we knew all along: Those of his ilk who demanded of war opponents that they "support the troops" were really demanding "support the war."

When his type says now "I support the troops" they are really saying "I support the invasion. I support the occupation. I support the carnage. I support seeing thousands of Americans die for no good reason. I support the death, the waste, the madness, the destruction.

"And what's more, war is like a football game."

Ah, so refreshingly honest. Of course, it couldn't last and Jacoby returns to the lies: John Kerry insulted the troops. (He actually was insulting Bush.) Patty Murray praised Osama bin Laden. (She actually was talking about the perception in the Middle East.) Dick Durbin equated interrogators at Gitmo with Nazis. (He actually said that if you read the FBI reports of conditions there, you would think it was describing something in Nazi Germany - which was true.)

In the course of writing this, though, it suddenly occurred to me how Jacoby could spout the bilge he does. Revealingly, he cries that the House resolution falsely claims to support the troops but actually "undermines their mission." That is, unlike war opponents, he doesn't see the troops as people, as individual human beings, but rather as one indistinguishable mass, a mere extension of presidential will.

That's why war opponents say to the troops "We want you to come home safe and sound and as quickly as possible. But while you're there we want you to have the equipment you need, the training you need, the protection you need. And we want you to have the help you need when you get back." And that's why people like Jacoby say to the troops "Rah, rah. Go kill. Go get maimed. Go die."

At least now he's honest about it.