Friday, May 7, 2004 - 6:34 PM CDT

This is deeply offensive nonsense for those of us who are against this occupation and have loved ones in harms way.

Monday, May 10, 2004 - 8:48 AM CDT

Thanks for your comment. Expressing your pique (or claiming offense on someone else's behalf, as the case may be) does not amount to an argument. Do you support the troops who abused Iraqi prisoners?

Friday, May 14, 2004 - 1:28 AM CDT

It's an emotional response to rubbish like "'support' has been emptied of meaning". If your nephew were in Iraq, you'd "support" him no matter how you felt about the attack & taking of the country, wouldn't you? But in this ridiculous exercise, you've set up an "anti-war" straw man to knock down. Fine. Have your convoluted fun.

Meanwhile for me it's very simple. I support my two loved ones who are over there by working to end the horrors and the killing and bring them back alive as soon as possible.

Friday, May 14, 2004 - 1:08 PM CDT

With all my heart, I pray Godspeed to your nephew and to all of our troops serving their Country faithfully. And I do so without any qualification or nuanced re-definitions of terms, because I fully support their noble mission of 1. destroying a grave threat to America's security, and 2. liberating tens of millions of human beings from long suffering under tyranny.

While it is true that the claims of support for our troops, by detractors of what those troops are doing, are as substantial as straw, my argument is no straw man (i.e. a mischaracterization of the claims of anti-war "supporters" of the troops), it is merely a syllogism, the inescapable logic of which you prefer to deny than to confront.

In light of the implications, I'm not surprised that you flinch from answering a straightforward question, ("O what a tangled web we weave...") but, what I find most fascinating about your stance is its self-serving focus. Assuming that you have no political motive for asserting support for troops whose actions you oppose, one is left to wonder who is meant to benefit from such "support?"

The knowledge that the folks back home account their actions to be on behalf of an unworthy cause, cannot but demoralize the troops, unless those warriors have no regard for the opinions of those who disparage their cause. So your opposition to the war that your loved ones are fighting may very well discourage them, and at best, cannot encourage them. So, besides it making you feel better about yourself, who else is better off because of your "support?"