Can You Support the Troops but Not the War? Troops Respond Featured Guest Writer Paul Rieckhoff

Four years into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thirty-some years after Vietnam, this country is still wrestling with a relatively straightforward question: "Can you support the troops, but not the war?"

I've made my stance on the issue pretty clear. I think you can do both.

I write about this topic (and others having to do with the politics of the Iraq war) extensively in my new book, Chasing Ghosts.

Regardless of what you think of this war - right, wrong or indifferent - we all have a moral obligation to take care of the men and women who serve. When it comes to issues such as VA funding or adequate body armor, it's time to put ideological differences and partisan bickering aside and just get the job done. "Support the Troops" is not some jingoistic rallying cry, but rather a clear imperative that should be separate from your feelings for or against the war.