In a rambling and lengthy screed posted Sunday at Salon, Steven Salaita, an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, says we should stop saying “support the troops,” and proclaims they are murderers.
According to Salaita, expressions of support for those who defend the country — and his right to be an insufferable jerk — is little more than “troop worship” and is “trite and tiresome.”
What’s really trite and tiresome, though, are liberal academics like Salaita who love the freedom our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines protect, but loathe the men and women who actually put on the uniform to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
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He writes:
In addition to donating change to the troops, we are repeatedly impelled to “support our troops” or to “thank our troops.” God constantly blesses them. Politicians exalt them. We are warned, “If you can’t stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them.” One wonders if our troops are the ass-kicking force of P.R. lore or an agglomeration of oversensitive duds and beggars.
Such troop worship is trite and tiresome, but that’s not its primary danger. A nation that continuously publicizes appeals to “support our troops” is explicitly asking its citizens not to think. It is the ideal slogan for suppressing the practice of democracy, presented to us in the guise of democratic preservation.
Wrong, professor.
As one of those who once as an active duty Marine, I can tell you that nothing lifts morale more than knowing people actually appreciate your service. There is nothing trite or tiresome about showing a little bit of support for those who serve their country.
“I do not begrudge the troops for availing themselves of any benefits companies choose to offer, nor do I begrudge the companies for offering those benefits,” he wrote.
Gee, thanks, professor.
But he wasn’t finished, as he went on to call our men and women in uniform “murderers”:
Who, for instance, are “the troops”? Do they include those safely on bases in Hawaii and Germany? Those guarding and torturing prisoners at Bagram and Guantánamo? The ones who murder people by remote control? The legions of mercenaries in Iraq? The ones I’ve seen many times in the Arab world acting like an Adam Sandler character? “The troops” traverse vast sociological, geographical, economic and ideological categories. It does neither military personnel nor their fans any good to romanticize them as a singular organism.
Memo to the confused professor: Anyone who enlists in any branch of the service and serves in uniform is deserving of support. It doesn’t matter where they serve — be it on the front lines, or in a supply shack at an obscure post in the middle of nowhere. Our troops go where they are ordered and they do the job they are given.
People like this, frankly, make me sick, and prove yet again, that liberalism is an ideology of rage and hate. What’s sad is that this individual is in a position to brainwash the next generation into his brand of hate.
So the next time you see a chance to support our troops, please do so — not only does it help the morale of our folks in uniform, it really annoys the left.
Related:
- Renowned author: Obama wants military leaders who will fire on U.S. citizens
- Liberal Daily Kos diarist calls for ‘benevolent’ Obama dictatorship
- President Obama: Troops ‘fighting on my behalf’
- Hank Williams Jr.: Obama a ‘Muslim president’ who hates military, farming, U.S.
- Ted Nugent: Barack Obama an ‘absolute America-hating punk’
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