Memorial Day - be a patriot

Let's get something out of the way here. Liberals love America. Conservatives love America. Everyone loves America. There is no difference between the two, as the post-9/11 reactions proved. Although this isn't a point that even needs to be "proven," because that gives some people the power to act as sole defenders of the flag.

We have, of course, for years been subjected to a false premise - that in order to love America, you have to support anything our troops do, and in order to support our troops, you have to support all of Bush's policies. Fortunately, finally, this spell is breaking a bit. At the same time that it has less resonance, it is being cast in an increasingly shrill manner by many commentators, like 45-year-old Harry Potters upset that their wizardry no longer works and resorting to shouting out the spells in hopes of overwhelming nature.

Let's review a few facts.

1. It is patriotic to concern yourself with America's greatness. This includes its standing in the world.
2. It is patriotic to expect America and Americans to do the right thing whenever faced with the option. It is patriotic to speak up when a small group of soldiers does the wrong thing and kills dozens in cold blood. Doing this does not lower our standing in the world, it shows that we take responsibility and punish those who act contrary to our beliefs. By covering it up and not taking action, the right to commit atrocities becomes our beliefs.
3. It was wrong to invade Iraq. It in no way "supports our troops" by continuing this folly. Support them by bringing them home now.
4. President Bush has not done a single thing that "supports our troops." He sends them to their death in wars of choice, doesn't give them sufficient armor or even food, uses crony capitalists like Halliburton for support, poisoning them with tainted food and water, cuts vet benefits, tries to cut combat pay, charges them for equipment that gets blown off, makes them buy their own tickets home from Germany, back-door drafts them, etc. etc. You can not name a single thing that Bush has done to support our troops.
5. Everything in point 4, repeated again. With the note that criticizing Abu Ghraib does not put our troops at risk. Doing all the crap in #4 does.
6. Tax cuts don't pay for wars. What a crappy idea.
7. Yellow ribbons don't do shit. They're out of fashion. You want to help America, stop driving an Escalade. Stop bragging that you're supporting the troops when you are doing all you can to make more oil wars unavoidable.
8. Escalades just really suck.
9. Illegally collecting everyone's phone records (and in some cases, all Internet traffic) hasn't led to a single terror arrest. This country is not crawling with terrorists, despite Bush's implications.

Once again, tell me a single thing that Bush has done to actually support our troops. I know, it's a stumper.