Support the troops

The "support the Troops" stickers on cars and trucks are now so faded by the Florida sun that most are no longer legible. I don't see many new ones and I don't think that Taiwan has any difficulty keeping up with the demand. I still see Bush/Cheney '04 bumper stickers, but the "Is it 2008 yet?" tags are newer and fresher looking.

Supporting the Troops may still be used as a way to stifle dissent and thwart any attempt to end the occupation of Iraq, but it's become apparent that any physical or moral support they're getting comes from kind old ladies that send packages and letters to men and women who have been separated from their families and in harm's way for years now as the hope of coming home is dangled before them like a carrot on a stick. Of course Senate Democrats are trying to get them some time off from the meat grinder, but as usual Republicans are treating it like treason or worse, an increase in the Minimum Wage.

I'm getting tired of referring to Orwellian Doublethink, but since since an obvious morale booster can be objected to in the name of keeping up morale, I have only to conclude that the morale being protected is that of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, see the Senate proposal to give troops some more time at home as a "backdoor way to hamstring" deployments. So I'm back to Orwell - support the troops means screw the troops.

The image of Richard M. Nixon telling us he wasn't a crook; that he had earned everything he got, is seared into my memory after three decades. I'm not likely to be here three decades from now, but perhaps some Fogg of the Future will still be thinking of Richard B. Cheney saying "go fuck yourself" or George W. Bush in front of his Mission Accomplished sign. I hope not, I dream that what remains in the mind and appears in the history books is the image of both of them in orange jump suits and handcuffs.