War Defenders: Using The Troops As Political Shields

This cartoon sums up how conservatives are framing the next stage of the war debate-



There are so many things wrong with this, but let me start with the most shameless.

First, ever since the war began, the President, his congressional allies, and his civilian defenders have used the troops as political shields to deflect any criticism of the war (when they're not using them for photo-ops). Against the war? Then you must hate our troops. Criticizing the administration's policies? You're insulting the sacrifices of our troops. Advocate any kind of withdrawal from Iraq (phased, long-term, it doesn't matter)? You're undermining our troops. Want to cut/decrease funding? You're putting our troops in danger. Etc etc.

Tom Tomorrow did a brilliant cartoon on this just last month. It's a bludgen... optimally designed for maximum emotional appeal. And it has war critics so scared that most war rebuttals have added to them '...but that doesn't mean I don't support the troops!', as if it needs to be said. It's disgusting to use these men and women as shields for political battles. Of course, by relying on this emotional appeal, the war defenders avoid having to counter the actual realities of this war.

Secondly, the implication in this cartoon is that Congress throws away money all the time on silly, frivilous things, but won't spare any $$ for the war. The amount of money spent on this war already is obscene. One count has the war costing America $1.2 trillion. Another count says that Americans pay $6,300 for every additional second we spend in Iraq. Congress has hardly been starving the war. As Daniel Gross said in his amazing Slate piece-- 'If the Iraq War Were a Corporation: How a real CEO president would turn it around'-- pouring billions into a failing enterprise with no strings attached is just poor management.

Moreover, the majority (well over half) of our federal budget goes to military spending. Much of which is just pork, fraud, and waste (as evidenced by how few people cared about the billions 'lost' in Iraq by all those we outsourced the war to).

God forbid some of that spending be redirected to numerous depleted domestic initiatives.

Thirdly, as a segue from the second point, the spending bills have done little (and will do little) to actually help the troops. Many troops' families are on welfare or other government assistance programs. Most troops lack proper body armor and/or their vehicles aren't properly armored either. As recent scandals have shown, their medical care at home has been either cut or privatized to great detriment. The much-heralded troops get very little of the military spending (it mostly goes, again, to pork)... what little % they do get will always be there and made available by Congress, one way or another.

If Democrats can't get on top of this NOW, they may well lose this round.

[PS- The troops? They're getting redeployed/recycled back earlier than scheduled. Again.]