Sir, I served in Viet Nam years ago, reading your comments reminds me of the feelings I had hearing about protest and anti-war comments. It was difficult not knowing what the future, minute by minute hour by hour, or coming home was to be like. A lot of fear and and uncertain thoughts. When I came home my friends and family supported me with love and concern. To this day I am forever grateful. I would like for you to know that you have more support than you might feel at this time. Please continue your efforts, we here are thankful and as a veteran I support you more than you'll ever know.

Disgusting propaganda.

Support the troops, they are brave and do a fine job given the circumstances, oust the politicians that perpetuate this war. It's a looser, just like Nam…

Americans have short attention spans. To most it seems that war has become the natural order of things in the Middle East, and American service men and women are inevitably involved. How many of those who read this commentary were past grade school when the US embassy in Lebanon was bombed in 1983? Does anyone remember the number of the dead? The first Iraq war, and the shock felt when the video clips of the carnage on the road from Basra were shown? How many can comment intelligently on the Balkans War, or with no political axe to grind when discussing Iraq II? A few of us have memories that were formed when the war in Vietnam escalated from counterinsurgency to the fall of Saigon. The current situation is chillingly similar. I wish Lt Babcock well, and God Speed on his journey home.

I am a daughter of a Vet and I say i support the troops but no I do not support the war my dad deals everyday with the stuff he seen over in Nom so HE## YA i supprot the troops come home safe we love you

SORRY GUYS! Our country is in a cluster mess. We are TRILLIONS in debt thanks to this awful, wasteful war. I am about to lose my house and can't find a decent job. Last I heard there is not a draft, so why are you all still signing up for the armed forces. As long as there are warm, willing bodies to send over, we will continue to lose good men to this war. DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR LIFE. You stand up, you protest and STOP SIGNING UP. Love you guys, but the GOV is going to do what they want to do, no voice can be heard. WE HAVE TRIED.

I have never fought in a war. I'm just a normal citizen. However, I think that if we are going to go to war we need to do whatever it takes to keep our soldiers safe...no half measures. I also don't like reading things about people in the military having to be on food stamps because they don't get paid enough. And I HATE reading about sub-standard care in V.A. hospitals! My opinions probably don't matter much, but I think many Americans feel the way I do. We don't understand what we are fighting for in Afghanistan. We are spending a ton of money and losing precious lives...for what? What's the goal? To defeat terrorists? It won't happen. They are all over the world. It's also discouraging when our government doesn't seem to want to protect our own country from illegals crossing the border, yet they send our kids to fight in foreign lands to protect those countries. It's not the fault of the military. It's the politics. This country is so divided right now. I not only support our troops, but honor them and respect them. May God bless you all, and keep you safe from harm. I personally hope we get the hell out of that country asap. And whatever happens, you have already won in my eyes!

"You don't really support us, you can't know what it's like if you haven't been here, I'm a soldier through and through, blah. blah. blah." Everybody has their sad story to tell, Sport, and your lot in life is no more noble or worthy of a pedestal than the next guy's. Suck it up and do the job you signed up for. I hope you make it home.

I am sorry that you have to do what you are doing. the war in Afganistan started because airplanes that were hijacked by terrorists were flown into buildings. Alqueda and the taliban are the ones responsible. these brave men are putting their lives on the line to stop this from happening again. they have families and friends waiting for their return. once the battle is over they are expected to come back and put what is left of their lives back together. this is where they will have the most need of our support. PTSD is alive and well in this world especially with our brave military. Support our troops in any way you can even if it is paying for a meal at Mc donalds when you see one of them there. this is the least that we can do to support our brave soldiers. Remember that tey also have families that need your support too. their families are missing part of their lives and support as well. it is our duty to help them as well until their loved ones come home.

Oh yes I support the troops. As a taxpayer I am forced to support wars and operations throughout the world, whether I want to or not, whether I agree with them or not. I have had thousands and thousands of dollars forced from me to support the troops.

LT. you seem to be crying and complaining as well. If you don't want to be in Afghan get out the Army. I served 4 1/2 years and deployed to Iraq twice, 05 and 07. We were scheduled to deploy again and I had the option to re-up or get out and instead of complaining about the continuous deployments I GOT OUT. My commander was sorry and he could care less about his soldiers, I didn't want to get out but after not having support within my own organization that was enough for me. You signed up time after time if you don't like your pay check you can get out in the world with the rest of us.

I support the troops...I support the efforts...I do not support the thought process of many of the comments here...I respect those comments since in the US you have your right to your opinion.

How can we know what it is like? We are not there and cannot go there. Of course we do not know what it is like.

I have spoken or written to my congressman and senators...I am sure they read my letters (wink wink) and are acting on my suggestions now to send you every resource you need, including getting accurate but limited public data from the front.

I really wish they would read my suggestions or take to heart what people in my area want...we want you to have every resource known to man available to you as long as you are there.

We want the media and bloggers to quit compromising you and and your informants. We want the embedded reporters to quit thinking of their careers and start thinking of the lives they may cost by releasing info or stories that give hope and encouragement to the enemy and dispair to our troops and allies.

We want accurate and impartial articles and stories written and posted by the media and less half truths and partial stories that are manipulated or changed.

But to know what you are going through...no, I do not know except for the family and friends who have fought beside you in the Middle east.

I pray for your safety...while overseas and after you return home.

It is time for our troops to come home to America, it is time to put an end to this war. It is the best thing we could possibly do for our troops, who are caught in this battle between the Afghan government, and the Taliban. Let these Afghan and Taliban finish their own fight without us. It could be said it would be cheaper for our economy too! How about the benefits our economy would receive, from the extra demand of goods and services needed, when our troops return home. We have truly won as these people value the death of their young men more than their lives. As Americans we value our young men and womens lives for the future of our country. Our troops deserve recognition from all the people they protect, serve, and defend the rights of freedom for.

Right on! He volunteered!!! So what is he bitchin' about? If he doesn't like being a tool of the military industrial complex, then quit and get a real job in stead of living off the taxpayer!

Only 1% of the American people are personally affected by the war. As long as that continues; Americans will continue to slap a flag decal on the back of their minivan, forward cutsie emails to their friends with the flag and pictures of the troops, or stand by the side of the road and wave a flag and shout "we support the troops." (As long as it's not my child.) The only way to stop these never ending, political wars is to get everyone involved. Everyone must be required to serve; the Bush twins, Cheney's big mouth daughter, Hannity's kids, Chelsea Clinton; everyone. This time, NO exemptions because you are a senator's kid or have connections. Start that, and this war will end tomorrow.

This question has been asked by our troops from day one but no one cared to listen. For 8 years the President wouldn't allow the Media to talk about our troops suffering and people were more interested in American Idol then our troops. My daughter served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and we had to buy her bullet proof vest and deductions for cleaning and meals came out of her pay check. Soldiers reported they had to protect the Contractors who were working on Iraq oil fields as our troops got paid 3000 a month the Contractors paid by USA salaries were 10,000 a week with only 4 days a week work. The Pentagon used the soldiers money for contractors and bribes and top Military generals. Every time Richard Engel gave an honest report other news stations knocked it down. Reading comments that were so cruel and yes our troops had internet asscess and read them all. Americans didn't want to hear the truth as the lies worked well. Even President Bush admitted he didn't think must of the War or even Bin Laden as for years Bush/Rummy stopped looking for him. Our troops wanted Senator Kerry as President but notice how respect officer Pat Tillman was assassanated with Generals refusing to tell the truth under oath. Our troops voted Obama in office and are glad he puts them first. The Media isn't reporting that in one month our troops will be home from Iraq. Every day troops come home in the bus loads but American don't want to hear that they would rather hear about an actress going to jail or Mel Gibson. Obama honors all our soldiers and they support him for that. This War didn't have to happen it was created by Bush/Cheney to get control of Iraq oil fields and position an attack on Iran for Israel. We just learned 9 billion dollars was stolen from Iraq but you an fine the money in the pockets of the White House, law makers, profiteers and bribes for lies.

Is there anyone who ever had a realistic expectation this war was going to turn out any other way than it has? The enemy does not wear uniforms, cannot be distinguished from the local population, is succored by the local population, and fights in a manner that standing armies have no real answer for. With every attack we launch we create more enemies than we actually kill. A missile attack or artillery barrage may kill the one or two people targeted, but they also kill multiple non-combatants. That instantly creates an enemy of their family and friends. There is no end game here. Unless and until we simply leave it will be a swamp we just pour lives and money into. We accomplished the purpose of removing the sympathetic government. That is all that could be done. The terrorists cannot be eradicated, killing their leadership does not provide the same benefit killing high ranking officers in a standing army does. Large groups are not required to do significant damage to their enemy, and they can operate with autonomy, needing no central leadership. The best way to support the troops is to remove them now, from both countries. At this point the only people who have anything to gain from our continued presence are the people we are fighting and those making a profit off the war.

When I was in Iraq I decided that I had absolutely had it with the American public when in 2007, a poll showed that majority favored bombing Iran. WE had a war that was wasn't going too well in Iraq, that same thing in Afghanistan and the majority of American wanted to open a war on a 3rd front.

As I thought about it I became quite angry, Americans, I realized did not support the military. Few of them were signing up resulting in monster enlistment bonuses that had to be paid (remember the $20,000 quick ship bonus) additionally, few if any Americans supported a tax increase to pay for the war. So Americans wanted us to stay in a theater of war, risk our lives for a conflict that they neither felt compelled to join or pay for.

I never felt so disgusted in my life.

yeah hello you want to support these troops? get them the HELL home. enough already. this war is draining them and draining the economy and for what, for nothing!get these people home and stop having them being killed for nothing!afghanistan was never winnable, and won't be winnable by the united states either.again enough of the bull $hit1 get them home!

jackierawlings bingo couldn't of said it better myself.

Want my support?...

Refuse to serve in a war of aggression for corporate profit. Stop partaking in the slaughter of innocent civilians. Stop standing by as your fellow service members die for greed and imperialism...

then you will have my support.

I write my representatives constantly, it doesn't do any good.

I take part in protests against the war, to no avail.

Maybe it's time the troops stood up and said no.

The voice of the American people is being ignored by the war profiteers and chickenhawks who run this country.

I do not support war, any type of military, the troops, or the money we spend fighting each other. Guns, tanks, bombs, wtf are we doing to each other.....we are one.

Thoughts and thanks go out to all USA military, past, present and future. I support you, and my congressman and representative know my stance. Care packages go out to strangers among you; chores are done for families and vets, here in the states; thank you notes are sent via organizations such as WWProject. Regardless of my thoughts or actions, I feel inadequate in that I can't express my feelings to all...

Lt. Babcock makes a good point, but also misses another: yes, people should do more to get the troops out of Afghanistan; but there is no 300 million person monolith back home that is letting him down because they don't care. Everyone cares to some extent. Everyone would care more if there was a draft and all families had to share the anxiety and pain. The mistake of going to an all-volunteer army is a fundamental part of the problem. If your son or daughter or husband or wife or brother or sister is not there getting shot at, you simply have a different level of concern than those who do have loved ones in harm's way. How could that not be? And as far as doing something: we get frustrated too, having written our letters to the editor to protest, only to have them discarded into some unseen circular file. And as for our elected officials? Come on! Between Republicans trying to undermine Democrats when they are the out party and Democrats trying to undermine Republicans when they are the out party, the only thing our system of government guarantees is that nothing ever gets done, certainly not when it should get done. Now that we're in Afghanistan, our system finds it impossible to extract ourselves lest we be chastised by the well-meaning but horribly wrong conservative lunatics who equate withdrawal with failure to support the troops. Puhleez, lose that notion. The best way to support the troops is to get them out of this mess, which is conceptually and strategically stupid. The guys who want to run Afghanistan, simply want to run Afghanistan, themselves, their way, however disgusting that might be from our perspective. And it is, their primitive notions of right and wrong, the way they treat their women and children, are revolting. But it is none of our business!!!!! It is for them to fix their internal problems. And they have neither the means nor the interest in exporting their conflict to the US. Too many people confuse the Taliban with Al Qaida. Its an easy mistake to make. Afghanistan is a fractured, primitive, dysfunctional, ungovernable society better left alone. Only when we have fixed all the things that are wrong within our own borders should we expend any energy or treasure on the Afghanistan situation.

So, if my congressmen and senators would please take note, here I am once again, protesting as Lt Babcock suggests. I want him home, along with all the other people who are at risk because of a stupid decision made by the previous administration, from which the current administration just can't seem to extricate itself. It goes round and round; any time Obama wants to get out, he gets accused of not supporting the troops and/or not fighting the "war on terror." Don't you just love these actions by slogan? "War on Terror." Say it enough and it takes on a life of its own. Just like "weapons of mass destruction" (which weren't there); and the best one of all: when Bush couldn't get support for war with Iraq, he started saying it was "time for regime change." Think about that one. Who the hell are we to decide for Iraq just exactly when it is time for a change in their regime? By the same logic, they could justify the assassination of our own leaders any time they felt it was time for "regime change" in America. Do you see any difference? There is none. "Regime change" was a terrible justification for going to war. It was a slogan that took on a life of its own and before we knew it, we were in up to our ears. And we just don't seem to be able to find a way out. Any suggestion of withdrawal draws kneejerk protests form the conservatives who are just too aggressively focused to see the error of their ways. They don't listen to reason. If we walk away from Afghanistan tomorrow, that's the last we would ever see or hear from the Taliban. They're street-corner bullies (aside from being religious fanatics) whose only motivation is local power and sleeping with the prettiest goat. Yes, they would wreak havoc on the population, but that is none of our business. Their people have to throw off the yoke of tyranny, just like we did. Nobody did it for us. We shouldn't be trying to do it for Afghanistan, or any other place that our generous and well-meaning souls might want to make better. That sort of thing is none of our business, certainly not until we have created paradise in our own back yard, which would seem to be a long way off indeed.

Please come to your senses my dear elected officials and bring Lt Babcock and his fellow warriors home, now, today. Next time you want to go to war with someone, show us real justification and connect the dots in such a way that we can all see the value in the endeavor. No more theoretical justifications. I can still recall the "domino effect" that justified war on communism because should one country 10,000 miles away fall, they would all fall, etc. "Regime change" ranks right up there. And if you do convince us we should fight, can we please do it correctly, with the full force of our power and technology brought to bear (more drones, more firepower, absolute obliteration of objectives before a man sets foot on the ground, "shock and awe" that really is "shock and awe." Take off the handcuffs. War is hell. We need to be able to shoot everything that moves, no questions asked. People who don't want to evacuate a war zone have only themselves to blame if they are caught in the crossfire. No American soldier should ever be placed in harm's way because we were too concerned with the civilians; remember, the bad guys in these conflicts, unlike in any previous wars that I know of, use their women and children as cover, we know that, yet we wring our hands with every report of civilian casualties. Enough already. In wars, people get killed. In real wars, territory is taken and held, permanently. That's how you know you've won. We don't do that anymore, do we? And since we wouldn't touch any of the territories in question with a 10' pole if they were handed to us on a silver platter, what the hell are we doing there? "War on Terror?" Make the connection in a way that makes crystal clear sense to us, please. No theories!!!!! No, "we need to fight it there so we don't have to fight it here" crap. And no more "coalitions of the willing" bull@!$%#. Even the original coalition was a farce, light years removed from the WW2 "Allied Powers," which was a real, meaningful coalition, not a sham assemblage of reluctant and useless "allies" we have hidden behind these last 9 years. This has been a coalition in name only. Shame on you for perpetrating that fraud to cover up your determination to do the deed under any circumstances. And if we're going to go out and throw our weight around with arrogance, then let's do it all the way; that Bin Laden is still breathing is a disgrace; if he's in Pakistan, then bomb the hell out of Pakistan; they are not credible allies who should be respected.

So, if we must fight and put our brothers and sisters in harms way, let's do it right! And if an honest appraisal determines that we really don't need to be on the ground 10,000 miles from home (no theories), then let's get our people out of there now. Next time we must engage militarily, have the courage to do it completely; no more pulling back in horror because the carnage ("the mother of all retreats") is so horrific - that's what war is about, killing the enemy, every last one of them.

And last but not least: let's force the people who live with these monsters to police their own; that's the real way to fight the war on terror. Every time some schmuck from Kabul is identified as the player behind some act of terrorism, here, in Europe, or anywhere, we should immediately destroy the power grid in his native village, and the surrounding towns within 50 miles, permanent destruction so it cannot be rebuilt any time soon. Reservoirs, dams, bridges, etc., all become subject to obliteration. Guess what? It won't take long before these idiot "martyrs" are no longer accorded the adoration of their countrymen. The locals will do our dirtywork for us in short order. That's how you beat these jerks. Same goes for any losses we sustain in the field; if one of our soldiers is ambushed and killed, that town loses its electricity, the local gas station gets blown up, etc. Stop the "hearts and minds" nonsense. We played that game in VietNam and it didn't work, did it? Of course not. They just wanted to govern themselves, without our "assistance." And they've done a fine job of too. They've proven it all comes down to economics, the theories behind government just don't make a bit of difference in the end - where there are jobs and food is plentiful, people don't care if they have a president or an emperor.

There's nothing to discuss with the Taliban, or Al Qaida, nothing to negotiate, nothing we want from them but to stop their abominable behavior; and they don't want anything from us except that we die, each and every one of us; so let's dispense with the notion that there is a negotiation solution just around the corner, because there isn't and never will be.

Enough already. Bring the troops home. Show them you really do sport them. There, Lt Babcock, is that what you were hoping to see?

If anyone wants to "support" the troops, get them out of there. These are all volunteers so they should stop whining.

Do we really support the troops?

If we didn't, would we have yellow ribbon stickers on our SUVs that said we did?

OK then.

I support the people. I don't support the action. The fact is, America is borrowing money from China to wage a 'war' in Afghanistan and, we're going broke while we do it.