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The Big
Lie:
'Support
Troops, Oppose War'
Kieran Michael Lalor
June 5,
2005
After
relentlessly criticizing the U.S. military, anti-war agitators
like to assuage their guilty consciences and convince themselves
that they are patriots by repeating empty slogans about opposing
the war, not the warrior. Then they promptly resume bashing the
cause for which those warriors risk their lives.
When told
about the heroic deeds the U.S. armed forces have done, the
anti-war left chooses to dwell on Abu Ghraib. They refer to our
troops as occupiers rather than liberators. As if on cue, they
play right into the terrorist's disinformation handbook by
believing the word of captured Jihadists over the American
military when discussing "torture" allegations at Guantanamo
Bay.
Last
Sunday, a speaker at a Manhattan anti-war rally claimed that the
American military trains convoy drivers using cardboard cutouts
of kids so that the drivers can get practice driving over
children. Clearly, one cannot believe that our troops practice
running over children and simultaneously support them.
Almost
every comment made by the war's vocal opposition about the U.S.
military is negative. However, they know that the anti-war
movement has a shameful lineage of mistreating veterans dating
back to the Vietnam era. To avoid conjuring up memories of
so-called peace protesters spitting on young vets in airports
and calling them "baby killers," they try to cover themselves by
proclaiming to support the troops.
In brief,
anti-war zealots who claim to support the troops are liars.
Recent events in our community prove it.
On Memorial
Day anti-war activists splashed gallons of red paint on a
veterans monument in Putnam County. Wednesday they spray-painted
a peace symbol on a monument honoring Walter Panas High School
grads serving in Iraq. Do they expect us to believe that they
oppose the war but support the troops even while painting over
the names of those troops and desecrating the monument erected
in their honor?
Anti-war
apologists dismiss these acts of vandalism as isolated
instances. A few bad apples, they say. This, too, is false. In
February, a man was arrested for throwing a burning rag at an
Armed Forces recruitment center in the Bronx. A Manhattan
recruiting center's door was bashed in with a rock while
anti-war slogans and the trademark red paint was splattered on
the building. More patriotic troop supporters in action, I
suppose.
In March,
four anti-war protesters vandalized an upstate Army recruiting
center and poured blood on the office's American flag.
That same
month, anti-war protesters in White Plains demonstrated their
support for the troops by asking me, a veteran of Operation
Iraqi Freedom, how many kids I killed in Iraq and by calling me
a Nazi and a sucker for enlisting in the military. The White
Plains crew also demonstrated their undying support of the
military by passing out fliers that encouraged young people not
to join it. Clearly those assembled that day were troop
supporters all.
An on-line
search indicates that in nearly every state of the union similar
instances of anti-troop, anti-military vandalism have been
perpetrated by those who espouse peace despite the ubiquitous
claim that they oppose the war not the troops.
The
anti-war rabble who hide behind a placards proclaiming to
support the troops while constantly condemning and dishonoring
them are hypocrites of the first order. Their lies must be
challenged and exposed by those who truly support our troops and
the cause for which they are serving.
KIERAN
MICHAEL LALOR, Is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and
Founder of Eternal Vigilance Society
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