Support the Troops

Last night, like most people, I sat up in rapt attention last night listening to the speech/announcement and of course, being a 20 something, posting on facebook about it.  My final post for the night was, after finding out that it was a human operation rather than drone, was "I hope that Seal team got at least a near beer for this. God Bless our Troops". I woke up this morning to a message from a friend in college that shocked me. Granted, I was a bit of a hippie in college, heck I still am! But this message was a surprise to say the least

Your post about god and the troops is very disturbing to me. And i have to express my deepest horror at it. 

u think god has something to do w this glamorous war pursuit that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and is not over now that this ONE man is dead? how many will your beloved troops murder in pursuit of what... tell me what the hell all these american, iraqi, Afghani, pakistani lives have to be lost. This is an insult to this country, to god, and to the majority of other people and religions who call this planet home.

not sure ur the same sarah i knew in college - the one that believed in peace - but looks like u should read some real books again and not the government war propaganda at your job. 

i'm truly disgusted by your posts of late and this one is the last straw.

Okay. Wow.  Also to note, of my last 50 facebook updates only i think 15 had anything to do with the military. To be honest. I found his message mostly absurd. I wasn't even going to respond to it, but I felt like I had to at least show him where I come from. This was my response

4452 killed. 40k plus wounded. 3 quadruple amputees--Todd, Brendan and John. Thousands of triple, douple and single amputees. More than 300k with Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD and other mental illness. More than 50 suicides per month. I know all the stats, I live the stats every day. 

I am the exact same person I was in in college except I am not so naive to the fact that I can stick my head in the sand and protest and pretend I'm making an impact. Now I AM making an impact. I am a social worker to troops that we--the military, the american public, the idiots who sent overseas--broke. Some beyond repair 

I deal with young men, younger than us, who while we were partying in east were deployed 2, 3, 4 times to austere places to do work that they didn't necessarily believe in. And I only deal with the ones who come home "safe". 

Yes, I do think that God has something to do with this Wars, I think that he has given us free will and that sometimes we disappoint him by starting wars, dropping bombs and doing things that aren't nice to our neighbors (literal and figurative). But I don't believe he abandons us when we're in places that are unsafe. I do think he blesses our troops, just as he blesses the civilians and the other side. But he gave us free domain and sometimes we really screw it up.

I am sorry that you are disgusted by my posts and feel that I am only reading propaganda. I welcome you next time you're home to come down to [Army Hospital] and meet some of the brave and broken souls I work with. 

It might change the way your pacifism looks just like it changed me.

He responded a little while later backpedaling. I wont quote his entire response because he goes off on a tangent about how God would never be on our side because we commit war crimes. But I will say the first line of his message was "I don't want you to think that I think you are a bad person for working w Vets - it's a wonderful thing that you do."


No actually, I think thats what you said. And not to sound like the "right wing Christian" he said I sound like (I happen to be a left to center Jew) but "If you don't stand behind the troops, feel free to stand in front of them".

I am proud of our men and women in uniform. I am proud of Seal team 6. I am conflicted about Osama's death. But I think, overall, the world is probably a little brighter without him in it.