Supporting the Troops

I'm talking about that perpetual righty ploy, particularly in the US, of equating "supporting the troops", that is, supporting the men and women getting shot at, with support of every random hare-brained scheme that is thrown into effect over them.

This has been banging around for a long time, and I always sort of assumed it was about to evaporate, because it's such an obviously wrong and disrespectful argument, but it's still getting heavy use, and more often than not seems to go completely unchallenged. So now, as a member of "the troops", I've decided to make my statement.

To all individuals who consider "support the troops" an argument for any war policy, consider this. The neocons supported the troops by making up a real war for fake reasons, sending 1/3 the troops required because they wanted tax cuts for millionaires, and not giving them body armour or armoured vehicles for the insurgency that resulted. If that's support, you can all go support the terrorists please. There seems to be some difference in the way conservatives support the troops and their political masters, however. Republican politicians rarely seem to wind up with their legs blown off, shitting in a bag for the rest of their lives.