Pretty Much Says It All

Jason writes stuff I just haven’t seen anywhere else:

Dear Ted,
I’m a big fan, read your articles and comics, blah blah blah, hehe. I just wanted to drop you a quick note in response partially to your last article about “support the troops not the war” slogan, or whatever it is. Personally have served in the military and even in Iraq I would prefer supporting the troops and not the war to not supporting either one. Life is hard over there, it is very difficult to be isolated from family and friends, and the support of my family and friends helped me endure some very difficult times. I realise that the slogan is somewhat of a fallacy. It is true that without troops the war wouldnt be fought, so by just supporting the troops does in fact support the war.
I thought long and hard before I went to Iraq, not because of cowardace, but I like you thought the war was illegitimate, with no declaration of war, false, because I knew all the rhetoric from Bush was crap, and most importantly I thought the civil war after the regime change would be consuming long and arduous. It is true that I voluntarily joined, but after you say yes as a free person your not free till the contract has ended, I think endutured slavedom is a good mental picture of the US military. Most importantly tho was that I like many others dont just have myself to think about, its hard to take your wife and baby of 12 months on a journey to Canada. Not to mention as messed up as this country is, I love it and desertion to Canada didnt seem the best option, not to mention its pretty fuckin cold up there.
The issue of a lawfull order stuff is a bunch of crap too. Existing in the military is existing in mediocrity. To survive in the military you have to not make waves, do as your told, and basically not be creative for your entire stint. Saying to your Captain or Gunny in combat “I dont think thats a lawfull order” will definitely get you court martialled, might get you beat up, or worse might get you killed. That law looks great on paper and is great for civilians and generals to wave around, but the legitimacy of not having to obey an unlawfull order is pure fiction.
I hated the idea of going to Iraq, but the casualness you portray leaving the military is just false. Walking away from the US service is hard in peace time, worse in war time, and never ever easy, getting progessively harder from a single private fresh from boot camp to Master Guns with 20 years in and 5 kids to feed.
Couple more thoughts before I go. I think a more liberal stance that would help the antiwar movement than “support the troops not the war” would be to portray the deaths of kids for what they really are. There is an american conception that the people who die are soldiers, and who were trained to fight and die. Thats just not true. You know who the soldiers that die over seas are? Kids, they are that kid that sat next to you in Spanish class, the quarterback of the football team, the nerdy
girl in the corner of the library, they’re real people. Changing their clothes doesnt change that they will never return to their family or ever start a family of their own. I think the best thing that we can do to stop the war is stop flashing numbers across the screen but pictures of Johny and Jane who they left behind, the high school sweet heart they’ll never see again, their high school teachers who thought they would be something great, or their grandparents who have now lost an husband, son, grandson and greatgrandson in every war.

I never meant to suggest that going to Canada would be an easy decision. Just the right one. Still, otherwise, this letter still blows me away upon the third rereading.