Walmart is running a new commercial that continues the tired tradition of mythologizing our interventionist policy in the Middle East, showing troops in the desert who are elated when it begins snowing, (fulfilling a child's wish back in the US.) It suggests that the troops should be in our thoughts this Christmas. This is to say that by our thinking about the troops here, we are supporting them there, where they are being shot at and getting their limbs blown off by land mines. Perhaps by our thinking about the troops and therefore supporting them, Santa Claus will get in his sleigh and drop a magical force field around them which is impermeable to machine gun fire!

It's unclear how certain Americans still manage to be manipulated by this preposterously simple minded and deeply flawed message after all these years of it being abused by our government and whatever other entities seek to profit from war (thereby of course doing exactly the opposite of supporting the troops). In reality, there are two ways to support the troops. One is by sending them more troops, decreasing, perhaps only slightly, the dangerous environment in which they are operating. The other one is to pull them out of the Middle East completely and bring them home to their families and station them here in the US so they can protect us in case anyone attacks us which no one ever will.

So you can petition your congressmen to do either of those things if you want to support the troops, or you can shop at Walmart and keep wishing for magic. Either one really.

Alternatively, you could make like the patriotic young ladies in the image up there and send them a nice, firm boner for Christmas. At least that's something they can use.

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