Support our Troops

Before I start this blog, I want it to be known that I do not support the war in Iraq. I never have. I have always felt that there was a cheaper and more peaceful way to achieve the same objectives. Aside from the colossal waste of money, I am finding this war in Iraq annoying for another reason. Let’s face the fact that this war is dragging on endlessly because we are LOSING. This is what bothers me. Whether I agree with this war or not, we should not be losing.

We are a large country, right around 300 million people give or take a few illegal immigrants. And Iraq is a small country, latest census puts them a tad shy of 27 million. They are less than 1/10th the size of us.

But the numbers get even stranger for me. Latest polls show that still roughly one third of Americans support the war in Iraq. That’s (300 million * 33%) 100 million people. That means that there are more Americans that support the war in Iraq than there are people in Iraq. In fact, a lot more.

Let’s take the 100 million people, and say that only 5% of them are between the ages of 18-22. That means that there are 5,000,000 Americans between the ages of 18-22 that support the war. Even if you throw out women and gays, there still should be over 2,000,000 Americans.

This is where the numbers do not add up. By all reports, there are about 150,000 troops in Iraq. President Bush implemented a pawltry surge of another 30,000 troops. And best I can tell, we struggled to get another 30K troops out there, and it isn’t working. This makes no sense to me.

Based on the numbers, there should be a line outside of the recruitment office. People ready and willing and able to get the job done. Bush’s problem is not the Democrats. IT’S THE REPUBLICANS.

The people that support the war need to support the war. Not just by voting in a poll. And certainly not by watching Monday Night Football sitting on the couch with a beer in your hand and the remote in the other. Supporting the war also does NOT mean putting a nice little bow magnet on your car. War means sacrifice, and if you support the war, then SACRIFICE. If you know someone that is young and healthy, encourage them to go to Iraq and truly support the troops.

If all the Americans that support the war truly support the war. We would have millions of troops in Iraq, and the game would be over.