Who should we thank for our freedom? Some people like to credit the U.S. military for securing our civil liberties. It’s a nice gesture, but this distorts the truth behind American freedom and insults the groups who actually do fight to preserve the aforementioned freedoms.

The true defenders of civil liberties come in the form of non-partisan public interest groups. The two most well known examples are the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union. The NRA is acutely focused on protecting Second Amendment rights. The ACLU is dedicated to preserving other constitutional rights, generally leaving gun and weapons issues to the NRA.

The military is not involved in protecting our civil liberties, no matter how excited people may be to support the troops. Where was the military when former Attorney General Janet Reno held Kevin Mitnick without trial for three years?

Where was the military when President Clinton signed the frivolous Communications Decency Act of 1996, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court? I’ll tell you where the military was.

Our troops were doing their job, stationed at home and abroad — protecting our physical safety here, and (generally) protecting the physical safety and stability of other nations allowing U.S. troop deployment.

While our military is second to none, the latest strategies and technologies in armed conflict are irrelevant to the interpretation and protection of our constitutional freedoms.

Credit must be given where it’s due, and for the protection of our freedoms we must thank the ACLU, NRA and other such organizations.

A common argument against this is that had we allowed Adolf Hitler to take over the world (which is unlikely anyway), our civil liberties would have been removed. This is true. Dictators despise civil liberties, and he would have revoked our First Amendment rights along with most others.

This is a silly argument, though. Facing an invasion, our physical safety would have been the first casualty — long before our constitutional rights. Furthermore, bringing up WWII in the argument suggests our essential liberties are attacked perhaps only twice every hundred years. Every presidential administration has involved itself in restricting freedom in one way or another.

Following Clinton’s reign, the Bush Administration has degraded the Constitution via the Patriot Act. It is no coincidence that both the NRA and ACLU oppose sections of said legislation.

As with Clinton’s abuse of the Constitution, the military has been totally uninvolved in opposing the Patriot Act at any level.

And that’s a good thing. Soldiers aren’t trained to debate the intentions of our founding fathers. Nor are they taught why due process is an essential characteristic of free nations. M-16s and Apache helicopters are, of course, not allowed inside courtrooms.

It’s nice to say that soldiers protect our freedom, but let’s be honest: our military exists to protect the country in the event of invasion. It’s more often used to fight wars in other parts of the world, but neither of these cases involve the Bill of Rights or any other such document.

The freedom fighters of the ACLU and NRA, however, are trained to fight the encroachment of our civil liberties. To support that defense, one should become a paying member or contribute to the cause in some other fashion.

To support the troops, one should first ascertain the job faced by troops, and then try to determine a method of support.

Currently, our military’s primary task is the occupation of Iraq. One of the major problems is the poor state of their gear — most notably the sad shape of their armor.

Our military personnel traverse hostile areas, quite often without adequate protection. In many instances, their unarmored humvees are used as transport vehicles. This leaves soldiers vulnerable to relatively minor attacks, which has resulted in the needless deaths of many soldiers.

To make matters worse, the army has a policy against soldiers rigging up home-made armor. Many choose to take their chances and end up dying in vain, thanks to our politicians here at home who won’t supply the troops with adequate gear. To do your part in supporting the troops, contact your representatives and tell them you’re OK with spending a lot of extra money to increase the safety of our troops.

While doing so, realize our troops deal in the business of physical safety and not constitutional matters. Credit should be given where credit is due — let’s thank our troops for giving us the safety necessary to enjoy our civil liberties.