Supporting the troops vs supporting military foreign policy. (soldiers, regime, cost)

[TheHurricaneKid]

Are they the same thing?


I sometimes feel at odds with this because, in my opinion, vets, especially those who were drafted, should be taken care of. At the same time, backing a military regime means backing senseless fighting and hatred in certain cases. And in some cases backing a military regime means fueling more hatred and senseless fighting. A poor foreign policy can cost unnecessary lives.

[Jean71]

Foreign policy isn't just about military.
Its about Foreign relations regarding business, development, technology, manufacturing.. etc too.

Having our troops everywhere and flexing our muscle everytime we disagree with something, hurts foreign policy.

[southbel]

I think you need to separate the political decisions from the people who are being used to carry out those political positions. I understand some people may have an issue with that but the people that choose to serve are not the ones making these decisions. In fact, you would likely find many in uniform that also disagree with the foreign policy of the administration but they are not allowed, by UCMJ, to overtly express their disapproval.

At the end of the day, there are people in uniform, whether it be the military, law enforcement, firefighters, etc that choose to do a job that could result in loss of life. For that reason alone, I think we should respect their willingness to do so. However, you can easily be in disagreement with how those people in uniform are being used. Thus, the right place to direct your displeasure is to the administration who continue to sign treaties that force our troops to continue to act as the armed force for other countries.

[djacques]

Firefighting does not in any case require a firefighter to take lives for reasons he believes are unjust. Police work, although it may result in the taking of a life (which may be unjust) still involves a great deal of personal discretion. A soldier is not in a comparable situation. Any nonsense about the right of military personnel to refuse unlawful orders to the contrary, in reality soldiers can't usually do that. (As Ron White might say, they have the right but not the ability.) This is why Thoreau, London and others through history have compared soldiers to machines.