I'm sitting here listening to a man who lost his wife on 9/11, telling Keith Olberman on MSNBC that anti-war protesters should support our troops.
Let me make this clear. I support our troops. I have family in the military. I have friends who have in the past and are currently serving their country. My best friend is a veteran of the first Gulf War, and I'm painfully aware of his current state, unable to sleep, reliving the nightmares he suffered during his duty, wondering internally and out loud whether this war is right, his need to obey his commander-in-chief at odds with his understanding of the world politic.
I support our troops.
I support the need to bring them out of harm's way.
I support a peaceful and diplomatic approach to conflict resolution, both at home and abroad.
I support anyone who conscientiously objects to violence.
I support the families of those who are overseas, and of those who have given their lives in this unjust, immoral and illegal war.
I support our troops.
I support anyone who speaks out against our government's imperialistic and expansionist policies.
I support any legal effort to remove the administration from power, be it through impeachment or through voter registration.
I support anyone who speaks out against Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and the rest of the War Party's neoconservative architect's of the Project for the New American Century's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" paper, better known as the Pax Americana plan.
I support our troops.
I support those who gather at Public Square, at the Washington, Lincoln, and Vietnam Veteran's Monuments, at Times Square and on Broadway, at Lafayette Park and at the Golden Gate Bridge to voice their dissent, their discomfort, their concerns about our government's blatant refusal to listen to its constituency.
I support those who urge our Congress to take back their power, to right the wrongs that the Bush Administration has committed on both the Iraqi people and on the American people as well.
I support our troops.
I support our troops because they are my cousin, your brother, her father, his aunt, their high school buddy, your best friend's girlfriend, a total stranger.
I support our troops because they deserve our support, our respect, and our honor.
I encourage you to support them too.
--Tim Smith
Artists Against War
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"How does one impose a democracy on another people?"
