When Myopia Becomes A Crime

On top of this, the entire opposition to the Afghan war worships at the altar of Supporting our Troops (Bring Them Home!). This is either hypocrisy or nonsense. If you support the troops, you must support them where they are, not where you might wish them to be. So someone might ask: do you or don't you wish that the troops who are in fact now in Afghanistan remain safe? If you do wish that they remain safe, you wish them to possess that huge military asset, invulnerability. You want their armor and air support and heavy weapons to protect them. This can only mean that you hope they kill any Afghan who threatens their lives. Push come to shove, you want them to win all their battles. This, as an anti-war stance, is nonsense. "Support our troops, bring them home" is not an anti-war slogan, it is mere evasion. But if you don't wish them to remain safe, then you don't really support the troops. You're a hypocrite: you can't support them if you don't hope to keep them from harm. No one I know admits to this attitude. In other words, there is no serious opposition to the Afghan war, for much the same reason that the opposition to the Iraq war has been so feeble: the 'opponents' of The Mission agree with its promoters that the troops, its cutting edge, should be protected at any cost. Moreover the complaints about the mission are just that--mere complaints, making bogus appeals to principles which no one holds unconditionally anyway. No one has shown that in *these* conditions, the principles are so terribly important that The Mission should end. Yet the West's war in Afghanistan is an outrage--contemptible in its conception and shameful in its execution. If this isn't obvious, it's because the invaders don't seem to be violating any sacred principle or (to give them the benefit of a doubt) acting from bad motives. Instead, The Mission fairly screams that it will fail, and failure, in these circumstances, is a huge, bone-headed crime. The troops who make this crime happen can be viewed with a certain sympathy, but they should never be supported in any way. http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann06052007.html

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