'...but I support the troops': oft-said, what does it mean?

MY HUSBAND recently returned from active duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has been puzzled by people who speak out -- to his face, mind you -- against our government's plan to increase troops or increase funding for troops but who, in the same breath, say, "But I support the troops."

Recently, he very quietly responded, "Really, that's great. Exactly how do you support the troops?" The person was caught off guard and had no answer.

If you want to support our troops, take care of their families. Too often military families' needs are overlooked. If someone you know has a soldier overseas, help out. Take the kids for an hour . Show up one night with a prepared meal. Shovel their driveway . Give them a shoulder to cry on, take them out for a night on the town. Ask them if they are OK.

But the very best way to support our troops is to provide them with the much-needed personnel and materials to do their job and get out of there as quickly as possible. Cutting off support to our troops will not bring an end to the war. It will only make the job of the soldiers already there more difficult, if not impossible.

JENNIFER BALDINO
Norton

IN A JAN. 26 letter, Louis Geoffrion writes that "if Bush feels he is right, let's support his 'surge' and commit the resources to make it work," and that failure or success in Iraq will be the legacy he will live with. Sitting here watching my 16-month-old granddaughter, whose father will return to Iraq in a month, I wonder how many of the millions of Americans with similar connections to Bush's failed policies would agree.

STEVE ANDERSON
Plymouth

JAMES CARROLL'S Jan. 29 op-ed "Deathtrap" painted a grim and, unfortunately, realistic picture of what American troops are facing in Iraq, and what the politicians at home are not doing to help them. As Iraq's instability and danger grow daily, our troops are fighting a newly united enemy without solid governmental guidance. In a time when our military needs the most leadership, our government is in partisan gridlock.

There needs to be a major reevaluation of how our wartime policies are made. Politicians should form opinions and policies to win the war and protect our troops, not to promote their own political agendas. Most important, they could all use a reminder that the policies they enact affect real people: our troops.

The Republican and Democratic parties are trying to claim the solution to the war as their own, instead of working together to stabilize Iraq, bring our troops home, and ultimately end the war. If politicians could put their ideological differences aside and cross partisan lines, then a realistic Iraq exit strategy could be planned.

MICHAEL TUCKER
Somerville

THE ONLY way I could possibly support the "surge" is if all of the members of the Bush administration and all of the members of Congress who have sons or daughters, grandsons or granddaughters, brothers or sisters, or nieces or nephews of an age to serve in the military offer them to serve in Iraq as part of the "shared sacrifice" the president talks about. If they are unwilling to share the sacrifice on a personal level, they should recognize the sacrifices that our troops (and their families) have already made and work to bring them home.

BETSY SMITH
Brewster