Grassroots support for the military
July 21st, 2008 by Republican By DefaultA record 377,616 people showed up at McChord AFB this weekend to take in the sights illustrating the power of the U.S. military. Compare that to the number that showed up to protest the Iraq war at various times around the area.
I would have to say that the voices of anti-war loudmouths was officially drown out by the sheer numbers of people who support our men and women in the armed forces. It reminds me that the biggest protest I’ve seen was the support-the-troops rally outside Ft. Lewis that stretched for more than 8 miles of overpasses (as that 2003?). And that was actually a counter-protests. The protesters showed up and according to eye-witnesses didn’t even get off of the bus.
I wasn’t able to make the show because of other responsibilities. I heard it was great.
McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - fencecheck.com
Air Show Millitary Expo 2008 McChord AFB USA - YouTube.com
McChord AFB Air Show 2008 - Web site
July 21st, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Gotta say, this is a very apples and oranges comparison. Many of us “support the troops,” but may not agree with the war.
July 21st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
You make the rash assumption that supporting our troops and being against the Iraq war are mutually exclusive. I’m not sure that’s the most rational conclusion to come to…
July 21st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Sorry, I don’t buy the idea that you can support the troops without supporting their mission. Anything short of that is just lip service.
When someone comes with that line I just give it time. It isn’t long before it becomes clear that the only reason they claim to support the troops is that it’s a popular political slogan. They don’t mean it. Maybe there are exceptions, but I haven’t met them yet.
As an example, no one who supports the troops would ever support protests that attempt to block supplies and equipment from getting to the troops. Anyone who supports the troops would oppose anyone who would stand in the way of their getting everything they need, including funding.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Again, apples and oranges.
I want my troops alive.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Let me see if I have this straight. By apples you mean that I’m talking about military troops. And by oranges you’re talking about an on-call disaster aid delivery service.
Do you support them as troops or as overtrained peace corp workers?
War is dangerous. People die. But without it, nations die and tyrants rule and terrorists gain support.
By the way, how much have you heard about the 550 tons of yellow-cake uranium that was removed from Iraq? Kinda puts a new twist in the Joe Wilson / Niger saga as well as the WMD issue, doesn’t it. The mission in Iraq is a just cause.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I’m not going to argue war politics here. That would be ridiculous.
My point is in relation to the original post where you summarized that all who went to the show must be doing so to witness the “power of the U.S. military” and that their attendance somehow was automatically places them all in opposite to the anti-war voices. Not so.
Just like there are thousands with your viewpoint that did not make it to the air show (like you), there are thousands who likely went to see the air show that aren’t necessarily pro-war. I wasn’t one of them, but I know others who did and are.
Attendance at an air show, especially one that has suffered absences for years of folks we may now welcome home, says that people like to see planes to tricks, they like to see motors go roar, some are “yay war” and/or “yay troops” and some are just looking for something to do.
That’s all I’m saying.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pm
So you’re trying to tell me that a bunch of anti-war fanatics went to a military air show on a military base surrounded by people they would likely call jingoists just two weeks after the city saw a mostly civilian air show just a few miles down the road?
Uh huh. Sure. That makes perfect sense. I’m sure they were there in droves.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Nope. Just that an airshow is not a protest or a counter-protest.
It’s an airshow.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
This was not a new discovery, which is why it is not being trumpeted as a big “find”. This was old stuff that was found and secured by the inspectors after the 1991 Iraq war. It was still secure when the inspectors went back before the Bush invasion. The big deal about this yellow-cake is that we are now dispersing it to other existing nuclear powers to get it out of the Middle-east before we begin withdrawing. Yellow cake is raw unprocessed uranium that needs to be processed and concentrated 100s of times before it is of any use in weapons.
No one disputes that Iraq had WMD in 1991 (and did use them against Iran, with our blessing, and against the Kurd rebellion). We even provided chemical warfare suits to Iraq so their soldiers could survive WMD use. However, Iraq did not have WMD after that time - except what was inventoried and secured by the inspectors (found still secured when we invaded - but left ungaurded by us in the post-invasion period of looting).
Our military does not decide when to go to war. Our elected politicians do. We ask the troops to be ready if needed. They hope we will only use them for a just purpose. If we allow our political leaders to abuse the troops willingness to serve by committing them to an unneeded war, it is not their fault. It is the politicians who start unnecessary wars that we dishonor, not the troops.
The ends do not justify the means, nor does committing troops to a wrong war make the war right. War doesn’t decide who is right - only who is left.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:12 pm
A military air show on a military base surrounded by active duty, reserve and retired military personnel, their families, friends and supporters is not just an airshow, especially for liberals. It’s a symbol of American military superiority in the modern world.
Again, the Independence day air show on Tacoma’s waterfront was just an air show. This weekend was far more and liberals are well aware of that fact.
Sorry, but I make it a point to call liberals on their doubletalk.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
There is a really big gray area between fanatical pontifications on both sides.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:26 pm
It was a purposeful, fear-mongering, right-wing double-talk campaign that got us into this war. How long will people continue believing everything the Bush folks say, when so much turns out to be untrue later? Not much longer. You can only spin an untruth so many times before you make us all dizzy - and we finally walk away to make up our own minds.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I’m sure there were some people there who don’t support the war effort, but to describe those people as being part of ‘a really big gray area’ is extremely disingenuous.
Maybe you’re sincere in your comments, but the things you’re saying are straight out of a liberal playbook that tries to paint anti-war, anti-troop liberals as mainstream by diminishing the patriotism and heart-felt support for the troops that comes from the majority of Americans. In most surveys and polls about the war a supermajority say that we need to stay there and win. To put it another way, most Americans support the troops AND THEIR MISSION.
And to say that people who showed up at McChord this weekend were just there for an air show but don’t support the war is just plain hogwash. It seems to me to be a clear attempt to diminish the real support for the troops that exists everywhere except a few liberal enclaves like Seattle and downtown Tacoma. To put that another way, liberals are quick to dismiss facts that don’t support their narrow world view.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
It’s interesting that the very country that rebelled against foreign government & overseas coprporate control of it’s resources, industry, politics, economy, and culture, now spends so much effort doing the same to others. Those who don’t learn from their own history tend to be judged harshly by later history. Look back. Look forward. Look now. Are we going in the right direction? Or are we going the way of all great powers in history who, carried away by their arrogance, overextended and shriveled.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 am
truthbetold - Sorry, I just found the e-mails telling me that I needed to moderate your comments. Because of that it will appear that you were ignored in my comments.
But to respond to what you’ve said, this is a just war. The American people were in support of the war prior to going to the U.N. where it appears that Colin Powell changed the argument from the fact that Saddam was a danger to the region and to our nation to one that focused on WMD. I did not need to see WMD to know that he was dangerous and needed to be removed from power. We gave a nation back to it’s people and made our own nation safer by doing so.
George Bush (and his administration) never lied to the American people. If he had he would have been impeached by now. Instead, the liberal attack machine, which you seem to be aligned with, went after anyone they could in the administration. And who did they get? Scooter Libby, a third string staffer. And how did they get him? By pushing an investigation beyond it’s logical conclusion, turning it into nothing more than overly-aggressive, and probably illegal, prosecutorial malfeasance. The prosecutor knew that it was an anti-Bush pinhead from the state department that leaked Plame’s name, which wasn’t a crime (as seen in the fact that he hasn’t been prosecuted) long before Libby made a mistake in his answers. My point is, the best liberals could do in finding ‘lies’ in this administration was the flimsiest case that wouldn’t have gone to court if not for the blind zeal of anti-Bush leftists.
In polls, most people who say they no longer support the war said that they changed their mind due to the way it was run, not because they changed their mind about it being a just war.
As for the rest of what you said, all I can say is, “cliché away.” You might want to get your head out of the liberal playbook and face reality.
July 28th, 2008 at 7:24 am
To put this post and my responses in the comments back into perspective, I certainly don’t believe that everyone who showed up at the McChord Air Show supports G. W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
I do believe, however, that history will show that regime change in Iraq and the support we rendered to the Iraqi people as they established a new government was a just cause and worth the effort put into it by our military.
I also believe that many who opposed the war, both in the beginning and even at the point where support was the lowest, did so in large part because it seemed as though we could not accomplish what we set out to do. I believe that support for the war effort waned not because Americans thought it was an unjust war, but rather because mistakes were made in the conduct of the war and a lot of media attention was given to those who opposed us and the Iraqi people in the effort to establish peace in that nation.
I believe that the number of people who showed up at the air show illustrates that the American people believe that their military is a force for good in the world. I think it shows that the American people do not believe that our military are the baby-killing, prisoner-abusing/torturing imperialistic thugs who are willing to die for oil company executives, which is what liberals (and the liberal media) try to make them out to be.
I also think that the number of people who showed up at the air show is also indicative of the fact that the media is no longer harping (on a daily basis) on the lack of total success in Iraq. I think it has become clear to the American people that we can and in fact did win this war by toppling a tyrannical government and allowing the people we liberated to form their own government. It’s shameful that the media illustrates this not by reporting the facts about progress, but by not reporting anything.
I believe that, in time, the war in Iraq will be viewed with much the same patriotic pride that Americans show when they speak of the WWI, WWII, the cold war and others where our military stood up to the forces of evil in the world and represented the good people of this nation as they conquered tyranny around the world.
So now as the success in Iraq is becoming clear to everyone the liberals who opposed it are slinking back under the rocks they crawled out from under without ever admitting that they were wrong. We won. And the fact that so many people would showed up at an event put on by our military shows that the average American believes that the men and women in our armed forces deserve our support.