US Military Suicide Rate Exceeds Combat Fatalities

If we are really interested in supporting our troops then that means cutting the political rhetoric that calls for support of our troops merely to appeal to American sensibilities and instead ending our wars, ending serial redeployments and ending cuts to veterans’ benefits and support programs.

If we are really interested in supporting our troops then we would stop treating them like cattle, shipping them off on foreign wars that have nothing to do with national defense and everything to do with nation building, stop putting soldiers directly in harm’s way, call them heroes and then immediately forget about them when they come home – until redeployment that is.

If we are really interested in supporting our troops then we would cut spending of military ventures abroad instead of slashing veterans’ benefits promised to soldiers who have loyally served their country, often times at great expense to themselves.

As Congressman Paul put it:

There’s just no legitimacy to the argument that voting against funding the war somehow harms our troops. Perpetuating and escalating the war only serve those whose egos are attached to some claimed victory in Iraq, and those with a determination to engineer regime change in Iran.

Don’t believe for a minute that additional congressional funding is needed so our troops can defend themselves or extricate themselves from the war zone. That’s nonsense. The DOD has hundreds of billions of dollars in the pipeline available to move troops anywhere on earth — including home.

We shouldn’t forget that the administration took $600 million from the war in Afghanistan and used it in Iraq, before any direct appropriations were made for the invasion of Iraq. Funds are always available to put our troops into harms way; they are always available for leaving a war zone.

Those in Congress who claim they want the war ended, yet feel compelled to keep funding it, are badly misguided. They either are wrong in their assessment that cutting funds would hurt the troops, or they need to be more honest about supporting a policy destined to dramatically increase the size and scope of this misadventure in the Middle East. Rest assured one can be patriotic and truly support the troops by denying funds to perpetuate and spread this ill-advised war.

The sooner we come to this realization, the better it will be for all of us.

If we are really interested in supporting our troops then we must stop manufacturing wars where good men and women bleed and die on the battlefield or in their bathtubs while the rest of us sit at home and watch NCIS.