BLACKSBURG, Va. — A Virginia Tech professor’s commentary on an online news website about the “Support the Troops” sentiment has sparked a backlash against him and the school.
In his piece Sunday on Salon.com, tenured English professor Steven Salaita argued against blind military support and said it becomes a barrier to questioning American foreign policy. He tells the story of a recent trip to a convenience store and how the clerk was shocked when he declined to donate spare change to “support the troops.”
“In recent years, I’ve grown fatigued of appeals on behalf of the troops, which intensify in proportion to the belligerence or potential unpopularity of the imperial adventure du jour,” Salaita wrote.
“Such troop worship is trite and tiresome, but that’s not its primary danger,” Salaita wrote.
Salaita criticized corporate influence on and profit from war and argued that soldiers benefit little from it.
“Numerous veterans have returned home to inadequate medical coverage, psychological afflictions, unemployment and increased risk of cancer. The free market and corporate magnanimity are supposed to address these matters, but neither has ever been a viable substitute for the dynamic practices of communal policymaking,” Salaita wrote.
