It seems the main reason the Bush administration opposed increasing aid for veterans to go to college was the fear that they might go.

And then who would be in Iraq?

“The last thing we want to do,” explained Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, “is create a situation in which we are losing our men and women whom we have worked so hard to train.”

So it was the worry that the program might work that caused the White House – and Republican presidential candidate John McCain – to oppose it. It was the fear that if veterans actually had a choice between Baghdad and Biology, it would be hard to keep them in khaki. In fact, they figured they would lose about 16 percent. (Supporters argue that increased enlistment would make it a wash.)

Instead of veterans qualifying after two years of service, the administration suggested six years – which could easily translate to three tours in Iraq.

Talk about earning your degree.

As of now, the new GI Bill amendment from Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., may be unstoppable, requiring the Bush administration to live with it. But the whole episode again displays the administration’s curious definition of “supporting the troops.”

It seems to be based on the idea that too many choices would confuse them.

The Military Officers Association of America, with 380,000 members, backs the amendment, saying it’s “concerned about the serious potential for a retention downturn among today’s forces, but believes strongly that any such downturn will be due to too-frequent extended combat tours and family separations that have been imposed on a too-small force.”

It makes you think about another Webb amendment, from last year, requiring “that active-duty troops and units have at least equal time at home as the length of their previous tour overseas.”

At the time, soldiers could have 15-month tours in Iraq with only 12 months in between. Administration supporters were irate.

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “If you want to take care of the troops, let them win.”

And if they stay in Iraq until then, we’d save a lot of money on college benefits.

That Webb amendment won only 56 Senate votes, short of the needed supermajority of 60, after McCain attacked it as “an expression of distrust of military leadership.” This was true mainly if you thought Bush and Cheney were generals.

This year, it seems Congress will force a 3.9 percent military pay increase, more than the White House wants. Last year’s increase was 3.5 percent, when the White House wanted only 3 percent. The administration opposed the larger raise, the Office of Management and Budget explained primly, because through 2012 it would cost $2.2 billion “that would otherwise be available to support our troops.”

As opposed to paying them.

Still, it would be a mistake to think that opposing improved college opportunities, blocking fixed time periods between deployments and resisting larger pay increases are the administration’s only strategies for supporting the troops. As Time magazine reports this month, there is a sharp increase in antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills prescribed to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, part of a strategy of keeping troops deployed instead of sending them home for medical reasons. It’s growing most rapidly as a way of dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder without, you know, actually removing troops.

Except, says the magazine, there’s only limited evidence that it helps much.

And there’s lots of evidence that there’s a lot of PTSD to treat. A Mental Health Advisory Team V survey screening Army sergeants found mental health problems among 12 percent after the first deployment, 19 percent after the second and 27 percent after three or four tours.

Those would be the three tours that the administration considers the ideal standard for the improved college benefits.

Considering all the attacks on war critics for not supporting the troops, it’s a curious set of positions from White House officials and supporters.

Sometimes, it can make you wonder what kind of drugs they’re taking.