Seen on a hybrid SUV in the (San Fernando) Valley:
FROM THE COMMENTS: James doesn’t “get the point of this post. We have free speech in this country, and that person is exercising his or her view to not support enlisting in the military.”
He’s right. The driver does have the freedom to express his view of the military. And I have the freedom to mock the driver for trying to discourage men and women from enlisting in order to defend this man’s freedom to criticize military service.
That said, point well taken, James, especially about liberals not being the only ones who drive hybrids. I have met a handful of conservatives who drive such vehicles–and sometimes with great enthusiasm.
I always have a hard time trying to figure out what bumper stickers are trying to say, but if I understand this correctly, it is nonsensical. As if just ending conflict, or reducing the size of the military, will establish peace. It would likely have the opposite effect, as well as having the effect of increasing the vulnerability of the USA and its allies.
And what jobs and schools have to do with the military, I have no idea. Maybe it is trying to say the government should divert funds from the military to create jobs (which would fail) and fund schools.
I don’t get the point of this post. We have free speech in this country, and that person is exercising his or her view to not support enlisting in the military.
The men & women who serve in our armed forces defend the values that give that person whose bumper sticker you showed, the freedom to voice disapproval of the military.
“Support the troops….Yeah right”
I don’t think the driver of that car with the bumper sticker was ever professing to support the troops in the first place. Not all Americans support the military. That’s not news.
P.S. Not all drivers of hybrids are liberals. I know a staunch conservative Republican who drives a hybrid because he has to commute 100 miles a day to work, and driving a hybrid saves him money on gasoline.
I’d love to see the person driving that car try to “resist” and “insist” on Peace Jobs and Schools under Taliban rule. People who sport such bumper stickers fail to understand that it is the military that protects their ability to enjoy peace, jobs and schools.
#1: “And what jobs and schools have to do with the military, I have no idea. Maybe it is trying to say the government should divert funds from the military to create jobs (which would fail) and fund schools.”
Naamloos,
Government spending to establish and maintain a military is expressly authorized by the Constitution, but liberals categorically reject defense spending as a legitimate function of government anyway. It is well-established that liberals believe every dollar spent on defense is a dollar STOLEN from some other government program or entitlement slush fund they approve of. That’s why during the Bush years liberals constantly cited grossly inflated numbers purportedly spent on the Iraq War and lamented, ‘Just think of all the schools and hospitals that money could have been used to build!’
I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to be included on the e-mail lists of idiots who assumed I was a liberal and would send out links to websites featuring those idiotic Iraq War ‘debt clocks’–typically a totally unsubstantiated 68-digit number increasing in a blur with an ominous caption reading “Stolen From Our Children,” or some other such nonsense. Occasionally I would respond with something like, “This is an outrage! Those trillions could have been used to put a Museum of Tolerance & Non-Denominational Meditation Sanctuary in every city in America!”
You know, it just occurred to me that I haven’t seen a single one of those debt clocks since Obama was elected. Hmmmmm….
It’s one thing to privately oppose the troops. When you put that bumper sticker on your car, it becomes a public insult.
One wonders what ‘James’ would conclude from a bumper sticker that read: “Don’t Be Gay! Choose… Morality.Family.Life.”
Thanks for the explanation, Sean A.
That is precisely why I support increased military spending (even in Canada), because that should be the primary function of the federal government. Most of the other things the federal government spends money on are things the federal government shouldn’t spend money on.
You can increase military spending significantly without increasing overall spending, you just have to stop spending money on things the government shouldn’t fund (which isn’t going to happen, of course, but government spending should move in that direction).
That would be hate speech (/sarc). There isn’t enough information in James’ comment to determine his political views (I don’t know if he has commented here before, though) but many liberals would likely supporting limiting people’s right to express that, as is the case in many countries already.
It is peculiar. Socialists generally support their military. Ours hate it with a passion. They do, however, favor the militaries of Castro, Venezuela, Stalin, “Palestine” etc.
As I understand the situation, if you look at some areas of Afghanistan, the Western military is all that stands between peace, jobs, schools… and the Taliban who want to wreck all three, particularly for women and girls.
That’s why I mock the owner of that bumper sticker.
And here we have Baracky talking about how he wants to make sure U.S. diplomats in Iraq come home alive “because they’re not soldiers”.
But of course, they support our troops. They just want them dead.