Supporting the troops

As a military spouse, I am frequently engaged in conversation, often by strangers, on the war in Iraq. People are often truly interested to know my opinion on the conflict, if my husband's ever been to war, if he came home safely. I think that much of America has a similar yearning - to better understand the course forward in Iraq by talking to those who've been there.

America's soldiers are perhaps the most politically silenced group in America. Efforts to ensure that our armed forces are free from politicization - an otherwise positive step - mean that soldiers don't get polled for their opinion on the wars they fight, or any other issue of the day. They can't appear in uniform at political rallies. They don't organize for candidates. And I think the American public, in this war more than any other, has really come to feel the loss of their voice. The war in Iraq has gone on significantly longer than our participation in World War II, but the all volunteer army has meant that the number of Americans directly impacted by the war has dropped precipitously. Americans are increasingly isolated from the men and women who carry the outcome of American foreign policy to other nations, and I think most Americans realize that they are the poorer for that isolation.

This isolation also means that Americans have become increasingly disconnected from ways to support the troops. After the initial few months of the war when it felt as if every block was busy buying sunscreen and chapstick to send to the boys overseas, supporting the troops came to mean yellow ribbons magnets on the back of the SUV and maybe a feel-good community event once a year. As a member of the constituency that these efforts are supposed to support, let me be clear - while your heart is in the right place, the magnets and the rallies are mind-boggling to me in their uselessness. My husband is currently training to go back to Iraq and put his life on the line for another 12 months. No amount of yellow ribbon magnets will make him whole again if he is injured. No amount of public rallies with marching bands will bring him home again if he's killed.

I don't mean to suggest that anyone with a yellow ribbon on their car is purposefully obscuring the true sacrifice of America's military. On the contrary, I truly believe that most Americans want to support the troops, but have been let down by a political administration that hasn't asked them to direct that need in a more useful direction. This war has seen no rubber drives, no war bond sales, no Rosie the Riveter ad campaigns. And in the absence of this sacrifice, supporting the troops has come to mean something almost inane.

There is, however, one incredibly important and meaningful way you can support the troops this November - you can support them with your vote. If you're not sure what that means, find a military family near you and ask them. For me, it means thinking about Iraq as one of the top three most important issues this election cycle, carefully studying each candidate's plan for the way forward in Iraq, and voting your conscience. What more support could any military family ask for?

For those of you who don't know a military family but are still interested in how an admittedly unscientific sampling of military families feels about the upcoming election, this absolutely heartwrenching blog posting from The Huffington Post is worth your time. I don't mean to suggest that the military families quoted there should be considered representative of the military as a whole - far from it. Political opinions run the gamut in military families. But I would argue that families whose sons and husbands have given their lives for the war in the Iraq deserve a little more respect from us, no matter our political affiliation.