Day: October 4, 2010

I don’t support our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car.

Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I’m sure I’d like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you’re wandering into a recruiter’s office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

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And I’ve got no problem with other people – the ones who were for the Iraq war – supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

But I’m not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken – and they’re wussy by definition. It’s as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn’t to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there – and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn’t going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He’s going to be looking for funnel cake.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren’t really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of “Laguna Beach.”

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

I understand the guilt. We know we’re sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

After we’ve decided that we made a mistake, we don’t want to blame the soldiers who were ordered to fight. Or even our representatives, who were deceived by false intelligence. And certainly not ourselves, who failed to object to a war we barely understood.

But blaming the president is a little too easy. The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they’re following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff’s pet name for the House of Representatives.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I’m tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you’re willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it’s Vietnam.

And sometimes, for reasons I don’t understand, you get to just hang out in Germany.

I know this is all easy to say for a guy who grew up with money, did well in school and hasn’t so much as served on jury duty for his country. But it’s really not that easy to say because anyone remotely affiliated with the military could easily beat me up, and I’m listed in the phone book.

I’m not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn’t be celebrating people for doing something we don’t think was a good idea. All I’m asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Joel Stein – http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,4137172.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

1. The Guess Who — American Woman

2. Neil Young — Heart Of Gold

3. The Band — The Weight

4. Bryan Adams — Summer of ‘69

5. Leonard Cohen — Hallelujah

6. Steppenwolf — Born to Be Wild

7. Gordon Lightfoot — If You Could Read My Mind

8. Bachman Turner Overdrive — Takin’ Care Of Business

9. Ian and Sylvia — Four Strong Winds

10. Anne Murray — Snowbird

11. Joni Mitchell — Big Yellow Taxi/Woodstock

12. Rush — Tom Sawyer

13. Blue Rodeo — Try

14. Tragically Hip — New Orleans Is Sinking

15. Gordon Lightfoot — The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

16. Leonard Cohen — Suzanne

17. Tom Cochrane — Life Is A Highway

18. Guess Who — These Eyes

19. Gordon Lightfoot — Sundown

20. Sloan — Underwhelmed

21. The Band — Up On Cripple Creek/The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

22. Maestro Fresh Wes — Let Your Backbone Slide

23. The Diodes — Tired of Waking Up Tired

25. Rush — The Spirit of Radio

25. Crowbar — Oh What A Feeling

26. Rough Trade — High School Confidential

27. Martha and the Muffins — Echo Beach

28. Stampeders — Sweet City Woman

29. Arcade Fire — Wake Up

30. Barenaked Ladies — If I Had $1,000,000

31. Robert Charlebois — Lindberg

32. The Pursuit Of Happiness — I’m an Adult Now

33. Ugly Ducklings — Nothin’

34. Sloan — Coax Me

35. Rush — Closer To The Heart

36. Teenage Head — Picture My Face

37. Guess Who — Shakin’ All Over

38. Five Man Electrical Band — Signs

39. Blue Rodeo — Lost Together

40. Ron Hynes — Sonny’s Dream

41. Men Without Hats — The Safety Dance

42. Rheostatics — Claire

43. Lighthouse — One Fine Morning

44. A Foot In Coldwater — (Make Me Do) Anything You Want

45. Corey Hart — Sunglasses At Night

46. Loverboy — Working For The Weekend

47. Trooper — Raise A Little Hell

48. Parachute Club — Rise Up

49. Alannah Myles — Black Velvet

50. Terry Jacks — Seasons In The Sun

51. Malajube — Montreal —40C

52. Neil Young — Cinnamon Girl

53. Alanis Morissette — You Oughta Know

54. Feist — 1234

55. Arcade Fire — Rebellion (Lies)

56. k.d. lang — Constant Craving

57. Neil Young — Rockin’ In The Free World

58. Michel Pagliaro — Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy

59. Bruce Cockburn — Lovers In A Dangerous Time

60. Tragically Hip — Bobcaygeon

61. Joni Mitchell — A Case of You/California

62. The Demics — New York City

63. Bryan Adams — (Everything I Do) I Do It For You

64. Tragically Hip — Ahead By A Century

65. Blue Rodeo — Five Days In May

66. Hank Snow — I’m Moving On

67. Harmonium — Pour un instant

68. Steppenwolf — Magic Carpet Ride

69. Sloan — Money City Maniacs

70. Celine Dion — My Heart Will Go On

71. k—os — Crabbuckit

72. The Kings —This Beat Goes on/Switchin’ To Glide

73. Neil Young — Old Man/Needle and the Damage Done

74. Jean Leloup — 1990

75. Payola$ — Eyes Of A Stranger

76. Blue Rodeo — Hasn’t Hit Me Yet

77. Bachman Turner Overdrive — You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

78. Bruce Cockburn — Wondering Where The Lions Are

79. April Wine — You Could Have Been A Lady

80. Teenage Head — Let’s Shake/Somethin’ On My Mind

81. Joni Mitchell — Help Me

82. Trooper — We’re Here For A Good Time

83. Lighthouse — Sunny Days

84. Jean—Pierre Ferland — Le petit roi

85. Bryan Adams — Cuts Like A Knife

86. Stompin’ Tom Connors — The Hockey Song

87. Tragically Hip — Wheat Kings

88. Gilles Vigneault — Mon pays

89. Spirit of The West — Home For A Rest

90. New Pornographers — Letter From An Occupant

91. Guess Who — No Time

92. Mashmakhan — As The Years Go By

93. Neil Young — Hey Hey My My

94. Paul Anka — Diana

95. Daniel Lanois — The Maker

96. The Spoons — Nova Heart

97. Beau Dommage — La complainte du phoque en Alaska

98. Ron Sexsmith — Secret Heart

99. Bryan Adams — Run To You

100. Wintersleep — Weighty Ghost
© Copyright © The Montreal Gazette

The Top 100 Canadian Songs – http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/songs+Canadians/3608114/story.html