Pawns?

I’ve been reading my usual list of blogs, newspapers and news sites and sometimes I don’t get it at all. Right, left, or somewhere in the middle, people of all political persuasions continue to use troops as pawns.

When did people who “solemnly swear (or affirm – never did like that little insertion) to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” become pawns for the left and right? When did their motivation and sacrifice for a greater good become something that either the left or right had to uphold?

People who worry about what others think of them are few and far between in the military services. After only a short period, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines all understand what is expected of them and why. They get it. They understand like no others what it means when someone says that all gave some, some gave all. They know why that is true.

Most of the time, military people are merely amused by the rants of the left and right. Darkly amused, to be sure, but amused nonetheless. They tend to be more conservative than the population as a whole (can’t imagine why the Gore campaign would have wanted to limit the ballots from overseas) but understand that both the left and right have and are entitled to use their voices. They get it. They don’t necessarily agree with the speech and they may not even understand the furor, but they get it.

Don’t call them Pol Pots or Nazis or anything else. Don’t make them out as superhuman; that they rise to the occasion is, as the citations say, “in the highest tradition” of their service is laudable, to be sure, but not superhuman. They’re none of those things. They are everyday men and women performing always necessary, often dangerous, generally unappreciated work to defend your right to politicize their lives.

If you want to attack someone the Commander-in-Chief wears a big target as do the congressional supporters of the CinC’s programs. If you want to lift someone to a higher level, see the previous sentence but find someone with a program to support. If you want to say something about the men and women of the armed forces, how about a simple thank you?