Dropping the Pretense of Support

Those who have rushed to judgement on Haditha have used it as a vehicle to shed the presumption of support for the troops. James Lileks put it best in this absolutely wonderful article about "world citizens" at Newhouse when he said:

It's very important that everyone concentrate on the atrocities committed by U.S. troops every day. (It's such a relief not to have to pretend to support the troops anymore.)

In his lovably sarcastic way, Lileks was on to something that is now beginning to emerge.

Via LGF, two posts from the Koskids show obvious relief at not having to "pretend" to support the troops anymore.

In this quote, the author is happy to shed the "albatross" of supporting the troops:

It’s a semantic albatross. The only way to get it from around our necks is to rip the sucker off, not to keep petting it and hope that it will fly away and leave us one day.

In this post, entitled "Support no troops" note the use of quotation marks and how it implies that support was never there to begin with:

Those who oppose the war in Iraq but who nonetheless feel compelled to express "support" for "our troops" might reflect that, without those troops, there would be no war.

Then there is this free-thinker, who was featured in an earlier post and seems to relish every allegation against our military:

I mean, we go on and on and on about how The War on Terra' is supposed to be a clash of civilizations, us versus the barbarians, but we act more like the barbarians every day.

Pay close attention to this as we move along. Details are emerging that cast believable doubt on the Haditha story. If (and that is still a big 'if') Haditha turns out to be a hoax, the only positive benefit may have been that it allowed the Left to once and for all shed the pretense of support for our military, and right out in public for all to see.