Poll: Is "supporting the troops" a type of military propaganda message?

[PhilipShore]

I would unconditionally refuse all war service, direct or indirect, and would seek to persuade my friends to take up the same stance, regardless of how I felt about the causes of any particular war

Albert Einstein

[Journeyman]

1. Is this the same Albert Einstein who urged President F.D. Roosevelt . . .

to develop an atomic weapon in advance of the Nazis? The same Albert Einstein who was instrumental in gaining Presidential support for what later became the Manhattan Project?

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Einstein was full of it, and the OP was unwise to...

... include the quote ( it has nothing to do with the question being polled), but the correct answer to the question is "of course".

[Robbien]

2. It is not the military pushing that meme, the GOP were the band leaders

in that parade. If you didn't support the war then the GOP said you didn't support the troops.

[Lasher]

3. A trite GOP slogan

Support the troops! = Support whatever Junior wants to do in Iraq!

[oblivious]

4. It's definitely political, not military, propaganda. And very effective.

It has worked in Canada too. A lot of people who see just the headlines and TV news parrot the line 'Yeah, but we gotta support the troops' (which they take to mean support the war in Afghanistan).

[mmonk]

6. Yes, it's used as propaganda

by every nation. It produces the canard if you oppose a government's actions, you don't support your fellow citizens that serve in defense of that nation when attacked. From that devolves into the notion you support the country's enemies.

[sendero]

7. Of course it is..

... it is a rhetorical device to try to shift your opposition to what a bunch of shithead moron civilian leaders send our troops to do to opposition to the troops themselves.

But you have to be pretty stupid to fall for it. Unfortunately, too many Americans ARE that stupid.