There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops no matter how mistaken the war.

No one ever said that fighting the war against terrorism and defending our homeland would be easy. So let's support our troops law enforcement workers and our mission to keep our nation and our children safe in the days and years to come.

Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.

We have the new greatest generation. We don't need as large a military due to the technology we have the equipment we have outfitting our personnel. They really are storm troopers.

Anyone who has to fight even with the most modern weapons against an enemy in complete command of the air fights like a savage against modern European troops under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success.

Our moral authority is as important if not more important than our troop strength or our high-tech weapons. We are rapidly losing that moral authority not only in the Arab world but all over the world.

It was helpful to have the American troops there in great strength. They knew there'd be consequences if they didn't move back. Now there has been some removal of the foreign forces.

There are tens of thousands of interactions every single day across Afghanistan between the Afghan troops and International Security Assistance Force. On most of those every single day we continue to deepen and broaden the relationship we seek.

And across Afghanistan every single day Afghan soldiers Afghan police and ISAF troops are serving shoulder-to-shoulder in some very difficult situations. And our engagement with them our shoulder-to-shoulder relationship with them our conduct of operations with them every single day defines the real relationship.

Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations.