This was sent to me just before the "war" (invasion,
high-tech slaughter, whatever) started:

   As long as we are not in a war - I'm against it.
   However, if we will be in a war - I'll support our troops all the way
   and frown upon whom do not do the same.

I wanted to reply to this, because I think it's a very important
issue. That phrase is usually misused (I am not saying you are trying
to misuse it but in our TV/culture it is..) It says "Support our
troops" but is really has a hidden agenda: "support the war" when most
people use it.

In fact, our "leaders" are the ones who least support our troops.
They deny, deny, deny when it comes to Gulf War Syndrome.

And I don't have to tell you which side of the political spectrum
supports medical care for all including for veterans/GIs..

And of course, to point out the most obvious, you also can support the
troops and not want to send them to their deaths. One supports the
troops by opposing their being used as pawns (as we all know they are)
in a game in which they are sent to kill (inevitably, that including
killing civilians) and to be killed, or be injured, or be
psychologically injured for the rest of their lives.

So it's very obvious that there is nothing relating whether one
supports the individual troops (I and most people do, regardless of
whether the soldier is secretly against the war or secretly a pro-war
fanatic, I don't want them killed) -- and yet oppose the war.

In fact if a war was a terrible idea, illegal, immoral, dangerous to
our troops, and dangerous to the region, and destabilizing the world,
then if they start bombing, does it miraculously become a "Good idea"
all of the sudden?

We all know the answer to that question. That is why they want us to
confuse "support our troops" (which is fine and good) with what it is
a codeword for "shut your mouth and wave those flags like an obedient 
person in a dictatorship, don't speak out like it is your right and
duty to speak your conscience in a democratic society", and we both
know doing that last is exactly what we should do: keep speaking our
minds that the policy is wrong and we oppose it.

You will very, very rarely hear the points I just made in the
corporate media. I wonder how many people you know have even thought
of this issue?

In any case, it's a phrase that is designed  to intimidate us. To make
us feel we better shut our mouth.

They want to make us fear that, if, God Forbid,
we continue to criticize what was (and still IS) a terrible and very
dangerous (not to mention murderous) POLICY, that we will
be accused of opposing not the policy but "The troops" which is s
silly childish word-game, but it is very effective when the powerful
use it, which is why they use it. We should not surrender our moral
conscience to this dishonest and hypocritical word-play.