Reply #9: Precisely

[antigone382]

You can't make a blanket statement about "the troops." To officially turn your back on an entire group of people for the crimes of a few, or even the crimes of a majority, is wrong. To those saying that they no longer support our troops due to voting statistics, what do you say to that 30%, or 45% as the case may be? And remember, they're getting a lot more propaganda than we are. If the government can keep half the country fooled, despite having access to the truth, how much more effort will they put into fueling the troops who have to fight their bloody wars, who don't necessarily have access via the Internet to the information we do?

If individuals commit horrendous war crimes, they deserve to be held accountable. However, in the end, like in the Abu Ghraib cases, it seems like the troops already get the brunt of the punishment for crimes which, though perhaps committed by them, were suggested, encouraged, or ordered by those higher in command. It is the upper levels of the military and this administration that deserve our disgust for crimes committed, not the soldiers.

Edited for spelling.