¶ … Troops The words 'support our troops' are frequently said as a matter of routine, according to Roger Stahl's article entitled "Why We Support the Troops." The phrase has been used by supporters of American armed conflicts on the right to covertly suggest that they, and not the war's opponents, are 'for' the young men and women risking their lives to serve America abroad. Members of the left in recent years have likewise adopted the phrase to suggest that they support the troops, even if they do not support the war. Yet Stahl says that "such rhetoric ultimately works to foreclose debate rather than encourage its citizens and representatives to engage directly the reasons for killing, whether they are right or wrong, legal or illegal, effective or ineffective" (Stahl 535) [CENTRAL ARGUMENT]. It reduces the debate about war to a matter of who 'supports the troops' the most, rather than the real reasons that killing is going on abroad.

Focus was placed upon getting POWs home rather than ending the war together by the executive branch. Eventually this ideology progressed to the development of what Stahl calls the "anti-war, pro-soldier" film in which war is shown to be ugly, but individual soldiers are shown to be noble (Stahl 539). The fact that such films as Saving Private Ryan garnered the support of the Pentagon shows the subversively, subtly anti-intellectual message of nobility hidden between the lines of these works. It encourages identification with the soldier, as do the 'yellow ribbon' campaigns of support, which deflects criticism against the government who had the role in actually sending…