Thanks for nothing.

• Author: Reddy, Jayant
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the editor

Thanks to Spencer Ackerman ("The Bitter End," June) for pointing out that "supporting the troops" is a misplaced narrative for war opponents.

I speak as a liberal Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq right from the beginning. But I've thought to myself many times that it's odd for our party to try to coopt "supporting the troops" as a narrative, when it's always seemed that a majority of troops are conservative, Republican, and supporters of this war--no matter how much fire they take or how many bombs explode around them.

There's also a corollary to Mr. Ackerman's thesis that he alluded to but didn't expand upon. It's a political folly for war opponents to fail to challenge the Republican narrative that we should allow service members--"commanders on the ground" and other euphemisms--to determine our policy. On the contrary, what any democracy requires is the exact opposite: that the civilian political leadership, not the military, should determine war policy. The Democratic Party's institutional fear of "looking weak on national security" is the culprit here, as one manifestation of the fear is to never be perceived as challenging anyone in uniform.

Democrats are doing better than we have in a long time in controlling the debate. But still too often we fall prey to fear and end up shooting ourselves in the foot.

Jayant Reddy

Washington, D.C.

I have to say that your words are heartfelt and sincere. But to say that...