Supporting the troops doesn’t mean supporting war

I didn’t have anything much I felt confident saying on South Africa’s mission to the Central African Republic right up until the memorial was held for the 13 soldiers killed there.

But then President Jacob Zuma said something that made me think. First a little bit of background:

In the run-up to the American war in Iraq, one of the memes that went around was the idea that not supporting the war was tantamount to not supporting the troops.

American Republicans drove around with ribbons on their cars, and the people who opposed the war were essentially treated as though they were playing politics, unserious conspiracy theorist commentators who were at best just dirty liberal hippies, un-Americans.

As Iraq wore on, when soldiers died the war had to carry on otherwise their sacrifice was being made in vain – and still the beat of the war drum went on, still people proudly proclaimed that they supported American troops.

In the end it turned out that the dirty liberal hippies were right.

George W Bush has since retired to a life of painting puppies, the serious commentators who were for the war are still writing for serious publications, and still getting things seriously wrong.

And still the troops had nothing to do with the decision to invade Iraq. That decision came not from the soldier getting shot at, but from a group of politicians safely situated an ocean away, who would never suffer the consequences if they were wrong.

Heck Dick Cheney shot a judge in the face and the judge apologised.

The courage of those American soldiers was never in issue, it was whether the decision to go to war was correct.

On Tuesday Jacob Zuma used the courage of South African soldiers to argue for the mission in the Central African Republic.

“Unfortunately, there are those who have decided to use this period of mourning to try and dishonour the memory of our heroes by peddling various unfounded allegations and conspiracy theories,” he said.

He essentially argued that those who questioned his decisions; were somehow questioning the heroism of those soldiers who were sent to the Central African Republic.

This isn’t about whether our involvement in the Central African Republic is right or wrong, but part of trying to achieve wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others. We must not make the Americans’ mistake and allow respect for our troops to blind us to our leaders.