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The "support the troops, not the war" mantra that most Americans seem to be only too eager to repeat without processing what it really means, I believe, goes back to the Gulf War. With Vietnam still fresh in the minds of many, those who opposed the war wanted to make very clear they had no beef with the people fighting the war, but just with the war itself.

This was especially the case with talking heads on TV who evidently were afraid of looking as if they were on the wrong side of things if they didn't go out of their way to say they support the troops. It was a way to hedge their bets.

Of course opposing the war and supporting the troops is a logical impossibility. The troops fight the war. They carry, point and shoot the guns. They are the war. So how can you separate the two?

Therefore, I don't support the troops. We are fighting a war of choice in Iraq, and there is no argument anyone can make to make me accept that I should be supporting the act of actually fighting the war, which is what "support the troops" means.

Here's what I support: getting the troops out of harm's way, bringing them back and doing everything we can to re-integrate them into civilian life. I support aiding them in finding jobs, getting an education and providing them good medical care so they can go about their lives.

In other words, I will support the troops when they are no longer troops.

Some supporters of the war love to make the scoundrel argument that you have to support the troops no matter what, and if you don't, somehow you lack patriotism. It's a way for them to somehow shame war opponents into softening their position by taking refuge in the "support the troops" mantra. And when they succeed, they win because they get even opponents of the war to partly agree with their position - a flawed position to begin with.

But the people who should be ashamed are those who lied to get us into this war and those who mindlessly supported it because they didn't bother to think it through or seek out the facts. And here I exclude the troops because they have no choice but to fight the war if they are serving. But accepting that imperative still doesn't oblige me to say I support the troops when they are fighting an unnecessary war.

Bring them home. That's what I support.

Learn more about this author, Pedro Pereira.
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