{"id":607,"date":"2007-03-20T11:48:24","date_gmt":"2007-03-20T17:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/03\/20\/you-might-not-really-support-the-troops-if\/"},"modified":"2007-03-20T11:48:24","modified_gmt":"2007-03-20T17:48:24","slug":"you-might-not-really-support-the-troops-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=607","title":{"rendered":"You Might Not Really Support The Troops If…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost three years ago, I wrote this piece<\/a>, which generated a ton of traffic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main part:<\/p>\n

If You Believe:<\/strong> that America has problems – huge problems – then dissent is American.
\nBut If You Believe:<\/strong> …that America’s problems make it an inherently rotten concept, then maybe you should think about whether you’re living in the right place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If You Believe:<\/strong> …that America’s projection of power around the world is immoral – then dissent is American.
\nBut If You Believe:<\/strong> …that any<\/em> projection of American power is inherely unjust because<\/em> it’s America, then maybe you should be living in, say, Sweden? Just an idea.<\/p>\n

If You Believe:<\/strong> …that capitalism is wrong because its inequalities are inherely unjust, then dissent is American.
\nBut If You Believe:<\/strong> …that the free market is inherently, irrevocably evil, perhaps China would be a better fit? Just suggesting…<\/p>\n

If You Believe:<\/strong> …that invading Iraq was wrong, then dissent is American.
\nBut If You Believe:<\/strong> …that our temporary administration of Iraq is worse than Hussein’s 30 year reighn of horrors, then perhaps you should rot in hell<\/strike> we need to have an attitude adjustment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I’ll reiterate – while I question those who dissent from the administration, I certainly will defend their right to do it (which is more than some of them will do for me<\/a>, but then such is life).<\/p>\n

But let me add to the above:<\/p>\n

If you believe: <\/strong>…that the war in Iraq is wrong, and you want to pull out now and bring the troops home, then yes, while I think you’re wrong (and most of the troops clearly agree), but your dissent is certainly American.<\/p>\n

But if you believe: <\/strong>…that this isn’t deeply intensely sick<\/a>, then no.\u00a0\u00a0 Your dissent is not “patriotic”, and you do not “support the troops”, and your opinion is <\/em>worthy of scorn at least,\u00a0but only if we’re in a really good mood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost three years ago, I wrote this piece, which generated a ton of traffic.\u00a0 The main part: If You Believe: that America has problems – huge problems – then dissent is American. But If You Believe: …that America’s problems make it an inherently rotten concept, then maybe you should think about whether you’re living in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}