EDITORIAL:

Support our troops.

We hear it all the time. We see the placards, the bumper stickers.

But what does it mean?

It seems that “support our troops” has become a slogan, an accusation, a political advertisement.

America was founded, necessarily, upon revolution and war. Thousands of patriots paid the ultimate price when they created a nation free from the onerous constraints of a British monarchy.

Since then, in dozens of wars, millions of soldiers have paid that same price. Our country, since its inception, has chosen and continues to choose freedom as its highest principle.

Some clichés, though trite and overused, are true. “Freedom is not free” is one of them. In fact, in the real world, freedom and the bloody, heart-wrenching fight for that very freedom are inextricably linked.

Today is Veterans Day. Whatever our political views, whatever we may or may not believe about our present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and however we exercise those views, we must not confuse politics with the human instruments of political policies.

We would do well to take the time to reflect on Washington’s forces — many wounded and shoeless — crossing the Delaware so that, someday, freedom in a sovereign nation might thrive; and the men at Gettysburg who sought to save this great nation from disunity; and those who stormed Normandy on a virtual death mission to blunt the evils of Nazism; and those, now, weathering the deserts and mountains in America’s two conflicts.

We would do well, in fact, to honor all soldiers of all American engagements for their bravery and sacrifice.

Should we do this, perhaps we can live up to the words “support our troops.”