The Register-Guard recently ran an op-ed from Katie Dyer, the wife of an Oregon National Guardsman deployed to Iraq. (Click here to read the original op-ed.) She talked about how difficult and lonely it was for her to be separated from her husband. I understand her feelings, because I am the mother of a deployed son on his second deployment to Iraq. His deployment this time is for 15 months. I think about him constantly, and wonder about the danger that he is in. I also was appalled by the story that Katie told about the anti-war protesters in Ashland, one of whom said to her: “You’ll join us when your husband dies.” Fortunately, the majority of Americans who oppose the war do not behave in this way.
Unlike Katie, however, I believe it is possible to support the troops and not support the continuation of the huge American presence in Iraq. I am a member of Military Families Speak Out, a national organization of 4000 military families who are opposed to the war in Iraq and who have family members either serving in Iraq or who have served in Iraq.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it actually means to support the troops. Supporting the troops does not mean remaining silent in the face of tragic mistakes and deceit on the part of our civilian and military leaders. In a democracy, both soldiers out of uniform and military family members are allowed to have and voice their opinions about the wisdom or folly of any particular war. Our democracy will remain healthy only if our leaders are held accountable for their mistakes. Only in non-democratic systems are citizens expected to acquiesce without question in the decisions of their leaders.

Supporting the troops means electing civilian leaders who will not rush needlessly to war and who will carefully weigh and plan for the dangers that soldiers will face. Supporting the troops also means making sure that they have the armor they need when deployed and taking care of them and their families when they return. And supporting the troops also means giving the troops a higher purpose for which they are willing to sacrifice their physical and emotional welfare.

Unfortunately, the American engagement in Iraq fails all of these standards of what it means to truly support the troops.

We now know that there were no WMD in Iraq and no links between Saddam and al-Qaeda, and so the primary justifications for this war are null and void. To base a war on such biased and faulty intelligence is reckless endangerment of our soldiers. We know how faulty the planning for the war was, and how crucial information about Iraq was ignored in the planning. The insurgency and chaos were allowed to take hold because of such poor planning. We also know that some soldiers have had to buy their own body armor, because of faulty body armor supplied by the military, and that the military lacked enough armored trucks. We know about the lack of care and chaos in VA hospitals, and about the backlog of 400,000 cases for disability benefits in the Veteran’s Administration. We know that wounded soldiers after leaving the hospital have to painstakingly prove they were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan in order to get disability benefits and, in many cases, have waited years to receive their benefits. We know about the lack of counselors and the lack of psychological counseling for our soldiers. Finally, we know about the destruction that we have inflicted on Iraq: the 5 million Iraqis internally or externally displaced; at a minimum 100,000 civilian deaths; the destruction of much of the Iraqi infrastructure; the destroyed medical system; the sectarian violence unleashed; the lack of asylum for those Iraqi interpreters who have risked their lives helping our soldiers. Some soldiers, in some areas, can be proud of the help they have brought the Iraqis, but looking at Iraq as a whole, how can our soldiers know they have brought something better to the Iraqis?
Do we, the American people, really want to send our soldiers on multiple deployments to occupy countries halfway around the world, and to wage an endless war on one billion Muslims? Or do we want to find and capture Bin Laden? The military is lowering its standards and losing many of its best people because of multiple deployments. Do we want an army of misfits and criminals, or do we want a professional military?

In the coming year I will support our troops by helping to elect a new senator from Oregon, and a president who will refuse to continue funding the greatest strategic disaster in American history. I invite all Oregonians to support our troops by doing likewise.

—- Miriam Reinhart