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It's something we hear all over the place, in all sorts of media, but, what does it really mean to support our troops? Does it mean to rally around someone who happens to have the means and personality to voice their opinions about what we should do? Does it mean that we should petition the government to pull them out of a situation that they may or may not belong in?

Support Our Troops is a common rallying cry, for many groups today. But, there is a forgotten demographic of people, to whom Support Our Troops is a daily undertaking. The families of those who are away from home on a constantly rotating basis. The wives, husbands, children, mothers, fathers, siblings, and significant others to those who enlisted in, or accepted a commission from, the armed services. The ones who sit at home, and wait, for good or ill, for their loved ones to come home, no matter how they do.

Those who sit at home, and wait for the phone to ring, for that email to come through, they are the ones who truly support our troops. They are the ones who gather together countless care packages to send, hoping that the cookies aren't crumbles by the time they get there, that they sent enough goodies to pass around to everyone, who always include something extra for those who serve wherever they are sent, but who don't have anyone to send them anything special. The ones who gather their friends together, to write letters and cards to the men and women who are risking their lives every day. To keep up the spirits of the ones who hear over and over from the naysayers, and the opponents of what they are doing.

It doesn't matter what one's personal opinion of what our troops are doing is. What matters is that the troops hear that we /do/ support them. That we do care. That we are in it for the long haul, for them, no matter where they are, or what they are doing. All the negative criticism that they hear about doesn't help them, at all. Sometimes, the tiniest gesture of goodwill and kindness, such as a package arriving in time for a birthday, or a holiday, with candy, a favorite magazine, some small luxury they don't have, means an entire world more than all the 'good intentions' of those who insist upon military budget cuts and a pull out from wherever they happen to be, from whatever they happen to be doing.

It doesn't matter if we are talking about the current war in Iraq, anything that happened in the past, or anything that might come up in the future. If they think they are going to be massacred in the press for what they are doing, or badmouthed for simply doing their job, if all they hear is the bad press about the situation they are in, and rumors of what might happen, or demands that they shouldn't be doing what they are, they are going to be demoralized. They need our support, in every way, not just the big ones. The smallest effort to make things more bearable goes a lot further than empty promises and huge demands.

Learn more about this author, Christine Dewey.
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