Larry K., your points are well made. But remember that troops overseas don't get the whole message: we didn't during the Vietnam-time and they don't now. I know, personally, more than a few 'Nam vets who were going to "kill some of those hippie protesters" when they got home; they ended up joining them.

War is a glass globe, isolating you from what is going on at home, a glass that only allows certain views through it. Also, you must remember that when you are in a life-threatening situation ANYTHING that you perceive as undermining your position is also a threat. For example, in 1969 an EC-121 was shot down by North Korea and we stationed in South Korea went to a DEFCON 2 status. I sat in on a meeting where the Divisonal readiness was discussed, and it was found that we had about 1/3 the basic load of mines we were supposed to have TO&E -- the rest had been shipped to the troops in Vietnam. The troops in VN were cussed and railed about because equipment that we might need had been taken from us in Korea and sent to VN. We didn't hate the troops in 'Nam (some, like myself, had brothers there), but their needs now threatened us.

Lincoln to Herndon, February 1, 1848:

"I have always intended, and still intend, to vote supplies; perhaps not in the precise form recommended by the President, but in a better form for all purposes, except Locofoco party purposes. It is in this particular you seem mistaken. The Locos are untiring in their efforts to make the impression that all who vote supplies or take part in the war do of necessity approve the President's conduct in the beginning of it; but the Whigs have from the beginning made and kept the distinction between the two. In the very first act nearly all the Whigs voted against the preamble declaring that war existed by the act of Mexico; and yet nearly all of them voted for the supplies. As to the Whig men who have participated in the war, so far as they have spoken in my hearing they do not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's conduct in the beginning of the war."

I, too, would vote whatever supplies were needed. Support of the troops is not necessarily support of the President's policies.