support our troops

I had to say goodbye to a friend the other night. He's shipping out to Iraq soon. In fact, he's already at his base awaiting final deployment. He doesn't know exactly when he'll be called up or where he'll be stationed, but he does know that he'll be there for 18 months. 18 months. It's just insane.

He was stationed in Iraq during the first Iraq war, and he feels an obligation to return to service and help out his friends who have been fighting in the second. He isn't deterred by his dislike for the current administration, the questionable underpinnings of the war, or the fact that he is a gay man rejoining a brotherhood that is decidedly unwelcoming of his sexuality. He was not born in the United States, but he wants to help protect his countrymen. He makes me very proud to call him a friend.

Thanks for all your selflessness and bravery. Come back to us safe and sound.

Here he is planting a wet one on me.



On a somewhat related topic, I'm a big fan of HBO's series "Six Feet Under". Last Sunday's episode showed the daughter, Claire, screaming at a woman whose car sported a "Support Our Troops" sticker. The woman's son was a soldier who had been killed in the Iraq war. She was visiting the funeral home where Claire lives to make arrangements for the burial of her son.

(Spoiler alert! If you have missed the last few episodes but plan to watch them, stop reading!)

Keep in mind that Claire just lost her brother Nate and is acting a little crazy right now: She went off on this mother because of the sticker on the back of her SUV, blaming her for the war and questioning the motives of the war. Why does Claire automatically assume the woman supports the war and the administration, just because the woman supports the troops? It really gets me upset when people do that. It's irresponsibile.

The two are separate, wholly independent concepts. "Support Our Troops" embraces the humans who are in harm's way for the sake of others, whether or not those others requested it. "Support the War" backs the act of war itself and, most likely but not always, the administration's reasons behind it.