McCain

Senator McCain claims the troops want to finish the mission. Senator McCain claims the troops told him this while visiting them over Thanksgiving. Senator McCain is somewhat mistaken.

I was a soldier. I served as an infantry paratrooper in Afghanistan and Iraq as a machine gunner and operations sergeant, respectively. I know soldiers. While serving in the military your normal rank and file soldier will rarely try to rock the boat, and the last thing they want to do is embarrass their chain of command. This isn't apathy as much as it is a survival instinct. When you depend on those in charge of you and next to you to save your skin then you try not to cause problems. This is probably why Senator McCain thinks the troops are completely on his side and the side of this illegal war.

When a Senator (or anybody that has power or prestige) visits the troops they are often scolded over and over that they had better behave themselves. When in a combat zone you do what you are told, and having been in these kind of "dog and pony shows" I know that it is generally best to answer affirmatively to any questioning that may occur. The truth of the matter is that soldiers are not robots, they are free-thinking individuals who have varying opinions about the war. That is why I am skeptical of Senator McCain's claim that all soldiers want to finish the job. All soldiers can't agree on anything, much less the authenticity of a war where more and more of my brothers are being killed daily. Realistically the proportion of soldiers who back the war is probably fairly similar to the proportion of civilians who back the war. I don't think Senator McCain realizes that the troops he sat down with were probably hand selected by officers to put forth the most positive image as possible, and even if they weren't it is unlikely that a soldier would whine to a senator about how much they want to go home and disagree with the situation they are in. That would be suicide for that soldier.

I was once told that your true character shines when nobody is watching. So what are these soldiers doing when nobody is watching? That is hard to pin down but one thing is for sure, they are donating money to Ron Paul. I don't know if they back his foreign policy or some other specific issue, but one thing is for certain, they aren't sending money to Rudy McHuckneyson.

I don't speak for all soldiers, I only speak for me, but using my knowledge of the military and an attempt at an objective view point, it seems obvious that Senator McCain is mistaken. No matter what they say to your face, Senator, their true opinion lies in how they spend their money, and that isn't on you.