Bush Losing Military Support

My take (0.00 / 0)

Having spent 6 years in the military from 2001 to 2007, I can personally attest to the truth of this.

Most amazing is the shift which occured between the general elections in 2004 and now. In 2004, many of the Airmen I knew were still blindly behind the war in Iraq. By the time I left, most of those people had begun to question things...which of course was great to see.

Those which were most passionately against the war, were the Airmen which had spent time in Iraq or the Middle East, nonetheless, the sentiment continues to spread.

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.

- Theodore Roosevelt

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by: Doug Mayeux @ Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 22:12:16 PM CST

Thanks for the insight (0.00 / 0)

I think one of the things that we should remember here is that members of our military and their families are not unpatriotic for disapproving of a president, his war, or his handling of that war. It is enormously difficult to stand up and say these things publicly, given the chain of command and the sense of duty that is shared among the various branches and their supportive families. But now, I think we are seeing these numbers not in spite of their service, but because of their proximity to it.  

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by: Karl-Thomas Musselman @ Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 22:52:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Great News (0.00 / 0)

As someone applying to Officer Candidate School, this is great news to hear!

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by: Grubejs @ Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 13:09:28 PM CST

Picture Arnold Schwarzenegger in Slow Mo...NOOO!!!!! (0.00 / 0)

But on a serious note, if you want any info on this, email me.

KT,
You make an important point. First and foremost, we should honor our service men and women. While it is true that it is difficult to stand up and publicly speak out against the war, there is another element to the system wide support of the war (up to this point).

While deployed, the emotional stress is massive. It becomes a necessity for those that are deployed to legitimize why they are there. It is the same principle (kind of) that drives the military as a whole to degrade the enemy. They psychologically need to view the enemy as being less than they are, other wise the necessity for killing is too much to bear.

The same goes with supporting the war. They have to believe it is legitimate.

Back in 2004, a young woman I most energetically debated with (she was in the Air Force as well), could not accept the possibility that the war in Iraq might be unjust. Her reason was relatively simple - her brother was deployed to Iraq. It was hard to debate the issue of legitimacy (although I did), and argue for unjustness, when doing so meant that I was telling her that her brother was in harms way, maybe not for the reasons she wanted to believe.

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy.

- Theodore Roosevelt

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by: Doug Mayeux @ Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 15:37:45 PM CST

[ Parent ]