Article

2007-02-01 Home Front: WoT

WaPo blogger attacks the troops, Lileks responds

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Mike 2007-02-01 06:27|| || Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I posted the following comment to the clown's column. There were many, many comments that were far less polite.

My son served in Iraq as a Marine. My wife jumped every time the phone rang. The moment he will remember for the rest of his life was watching the Iraqis have their first free elections. He was proud to be a part of that.

I suggest you read "Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and The United States Marine Corps" by John Schaeffer and Frank Schaeffer. The author, Frank, thought much the same way you do, until his son, John, joined the Marine Corps.

May all of your children join the Marine Corps. Maybe you'll learn something.

Posted by Bobby 2007-02-01 07:05|| 2007-02-01 07:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Bobby:

May all of your children join the Marine Corps. Maybe you'll learn something.

Well said, sir. Well said!

Posted by Mike 2007-02-01 07:31|| 2007-02-01 07:31|| Front Page Top

#3 Another step closer to making Sulla.

George Santayana: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-02-01 07:40|| 2007-02-01 07:40|| Front Page Top

#4 Those Hoover's and Nixon's will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers.

...I have gone through EVERY historical reference I can get to and can find nothing about Herbert Hoover getting us into a war (though every president from TR to FDR sent the Marines somewhere in Latin America, so maybe this guy is just so fired up he can't get his facts straight), and Richard Nixon had us mostly withdrawn from Vietnam before his career ended. Seems to me though that Harry Truman sent a LOT of guys to Korea without a declaration of war, Kennedy not only sent them to Vietnam but sent guys to Cuba who weren't even HIS, and LBJ sent troops to the Dominican Republic and Vietnam based on a AUMF that even LBJ was skeptical of. On the other hand, I can find ONE President who consistently misled and lied to Congress and the American people, who sent US military personnel to assist one of the combatants without notifying Congress, and who conducted an undeclared war for more than a year that led to the loss of 141 US military personnel and hundreds more US civilians - and during all this time, the US military was looked upon as not much more than a group of overpaid and coddled bums who were unfit for 'real work'.

IIRC, his name was Franklin Roosevelt.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2007-02-01 10:05|| 2007-02-01 10:05|| Front Page Top

#5 I'd almost be mad at Arkin (who, I guess claims to be a man) if I actually believed he could find two synaptic nerves inside his cranium to rub together or an x chromosome in his body to prove his male cred.

I was there during the Iraqi elections and am going back for tour#2 (albeit a much shorter deployment) in about two weeks. I totally understand where those Army grunts are coming from. I remember calling home from the sandbox and my mom telling me about the stuff she saw on the msm and saying how her mind was changing on the war and all the typical quagmire nonsense - I spent more time arguing w/my own mom about how much b.s. the American folks were being fed and they really needed to get their heads out of their collective asses and connect the dots that Iraq is not 'nam, never was, never will be.

IMHO - The American public has an absolute personal investment in supporting the war - 17 UN resolution violations over 12 years written in the blood of 300 dead Americans in 1991 = we have absolute moral/legal authority to kick the fuck out of Iraq and dispose their tyrant. *Then* after that was done it was imperative for the region, the world, and our own safety/conscience that we leave the place in some sort of order so we're not un-f*cking them again in 20 yrs - how f*cking hard is that for the average person to grasp? Those of us mil guys don't want our kids there in 20 yrs doing the job we can easily handle now. GWB said this would be a long and bloody slog - I guess the average 30 second attention span of the pepsi gen has already forgot that. How many lives and years did it take for us to complete our own Revolution? 60% of the American population was against that war as well. 60% of the American (union side) pop was against fighting the south during the civil war. Does anyone (besides those on the 'burg) know their f*cking history?

The MSM is who I really have a chapped-ass with. The pussy's in our congress would be no.2 - f*ck you Nancy Pelosi - the only "catastrophe" is your dumb myopic ass being the speaker.
No.3 would be my drooling fellow citizens who are "too busy" or willfully ignorant to fact check the info they get from CNN/NBC/ABC/MSNBC or whoever.

Clearly Arkin's a 68'er moron w/a severe case of penis inferiority syndrome - prolly when he was in college his girlfriend cheated on him w/a Marine or Sailor hence the underlying disdain for any man who is not afraid to claim to be a man. Then again were all mercenaries (I prefer to be a mercenary of love though am not sure I banged his girlfriend during my formative years :)
- I guess his definition of mercenary is different from mine and websters.

Overall, a clueless article written by a coward who can afford to say such pussified crap from behind his cushy desk in his safe office.

Posted by Broadhead6 2007-02-01 10:20|| 2007-02-01 10:20|| Front Page Top

#6 That's one BA rant to save, Broadhead. Keep your head focused in the sandbox and Godspeed in a few weeks.

Oh, and one more recent FACT of history. Official US Policy on Iraq was changed from containment to regime change. When? 1998, under Clinton! But, then again, facts are curious things that most Americans (worried over stupid sh!t again) don't know they don't know!

Posted by BA 2007-02-01 10:27|| 2007-02-01 10:27|| Front Page Top

#7 Broadhead: good luck, good hunting, and get back in one piece, OK?

Posted by Mike 2007-02-01 10:40|| 2007-02-01 10:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Thanks guys, no worries here. Going back to the same place, essentially the same job, same office, w/the same Marines. Pretty low key & business as usual. I'll shoot some emails from out there like I did last year. Until then I'll still be doing my regular schtick.

Posted by Broadhead6 2007-02-01 11:03|| 2007-02-01 11:03|| Front Page Top

#9 The significance of the WaPo blog post is that Arkin is already frustrated that the troops are likely to remain in Iraq, 30 days into the new era of Pelosi & Co., and regardless of whatever non-binding resolution is passed in Congress. Plus, there's the surge and the increasing activity vs. Iran.

From Arkin's POV, it must be hard to take that a Democratic congress in and of itself is unlikely and unwillingly to stick their necks out and go to the mat to de-fund the Iraq effort. So what was the point of those mid-terms, anyway? What sticks in his craw is that he and others still have to go through the jujitsu of "supporting the troops, opposing the war" for the benefit of public opinion. Look for more frustration to continue.

Posted by Whimble Spiger9099 2007-02-01 12:36|| 2007-02-01 12:36|| Front Page Top

#10 Real poll never to be taken by MSM and headlined up front and first to air -

Who do you trust most, your military or your Congress?

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-02-01 14:41|| 2007-02-01 14:41|| Front Page Top

#11 Arkin has done all of us a real favor here. He has lifted the "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" mask of "objectivity claimed by the MSM. He makes it abundantly clear that he hold our military in, ahem, disdain. This drivel could have been written by virtually any journalist at the NYT, LAT, CNN, CBS, etc, etc. So many of them feel this way. If they don't and they air their positive views about the mil or the ops in Iraq, they are smacked (see recent NYT journo who said the surge might (MIGHT) just work).
These people are on the other side, plain and simple.
Broadhead6, you watch your six and thanks so much for your continuing service. You protect me, my wife and my two little girls. I can't thnk you and your fellow Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors enough for that.

Posted by remoteman 2007-02-01 15:34|| 2007-02-01 15:34|| Front Page Top

#12 Talk about an ungrateful asshole.

Posted by JerseyMike 2007-02-01 18:05|| 2007-02-01 18:05|| Front Page Top

#13 Real poll never to be taken by MSM and headlined up front and first to air -

Who do you trust most, your military or your Congress?

Actually, in a poll taken, I think, before the last election, people were asked to rate how much they trusted a variety of people/groups. The most trusted, at about 75% I think, was the US military. President Bush got something like a 35%, and both houses of Congress got something like 17%.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-01 18:19|| 2007-02-01 18:19|| Front Page Top

#14 the American public has indulged those in uniform

He oughta be grateful we indulge idiot reporters instead of hanging them from lamp posts.

Posted by tu3031 2007-02-01 18:47|| 2007-02-01 18:47|| Front Page Top

23:54 Eric Jablow
23:44 CrazyFool
23:39 Barbara Skolaut
23:34 Barbara Skolaut
23:24 Sock Puppet of Doom
23:22 Chuck Simmins
23:17 Rob Crawford
23:09 Chuck Simmins
23:08 Sock Puppet of Doom
22:51 Chuck Simmins
22:37 RD
22:31 RD
22:29 gromgoru
22:29 mhw
22:26 RD
22:21 Gloque Elmang4914
22:14 BA
22:14 Gloque Elmang4914
22:07 BA
21:55 JDB
21:50 JDB
21:43 gromgoru
21:41 Bill Clinton
21:39 Frank G