Support our troops! No, really...

All Things Considered (National Public Radio) ran an interesting piece on the real meaning of "supporting our troops," referring to wounded soldiers coming back from Afghanistan or Iraq. For all the rhetoric of the Bush administration, all the "support our troops" stickers on cars all over the United States, and all the pledges of the military (especially when it comes to making promises to recruit new youngsters), the situation for wounded veterans doesn't seem to have improved much in recent years.

According to the ATC piece, "Many wounded soldiers are fighting another battle at home: dealing with pay problems created by the military. In many cases, the Army is "adding" debt to soldiers' paychecks." Additional horror stories can be listened to directly on the NPR web site. This is yet another example of how easy it is to say that "we will do what it takes," and how real lives of real people are affected -- often dramatically -- by the fact that we actually don't do whatever it takes.