The tone is probably a little different from the one I’d take. But I couldn’t agree with Military.com editor and (F-14 flyer) Ward Carroll’s sentiments more.
As a veteran I’m put off by the rhetoric (and the media’s coverage of it) from the far ends of the political spectrum surrounding so-called support for the troops. On balance the dialectic is white noise, not to mention by in large disingenuous. The extreme conservative doesn’t have the warfighter’s best interest in mind any more than the radical liberal does. Sean Hannity is a poseur and Cindy Sheehan is an opportunist. Neither of them knows what its like to serve. (And, by the way, having service members email you does not count as service.)
The draw of service is an intangible, for the most part. You can’t read it in a book or see it on a DVD and get it. It lives under lofty tenets like Duty and Honor but it comes down to climbing into the Humvees day after day because the rest of their squad is. Their mission isn’t spreading Freedom; their mission is to keep traffic flowing along the airport road. They’ll do it, not because the vice president gave them a pep talk from half a planet away, but because the captain told them to and he’s a decent leader, even if he doesn’t know a thing about hip hop. And they’ll do it because a few weeks back a couple of their buddies died when an IED went off next to their vehicle and there’s no way they’re going to let those insurgent bastards get away with it.
From the safety and quiet of my stateside home I have the luxury of wondering what happened to the moral high ground. I’m dying to know where all the neo-cons went. What happened to Douglas Feith and the spring darlings of 2003 who graced the cover of Vanity Fair and gave whacky press conferences? Goodness gracious, where did they go? And who gave Janeane Garofalo a microphone? Does the majority of the new left not see what a cartoon they are — like a middle schoolers conception of a Woodstock reunion or a feature length Tommy Hilfiger commercial?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
man that says almost all of it..well said
I agree. Both sides put their politics first and the well being of the troops – I only wish they scored as high as second. I’m really disappointed in the Republicans. They said they’d do it different, but it’s the same garbage, only the names have changed. We spend more to get less now than ever before.
B r i l l i a n t! Absolutely cracking write up. Although anyone on the ends who has a brain won’t dare to disagree with you, as it only gives your words more credibility. This has been needed for a long time now, and its great that SOME people (Defense Tech) have balls to publish the truth. I’m sick of the media and politicians with their semantic bulls**t (can I say that?) rhetoric. They have made an art, no, a science, of missing the point.
If they really cared so much it would have cost 75 cents to take the Iraqi house of cards down. (One 50 cal. delivered intracranially to Saddam, Uday, and Qusay) I know international treaties prevent the U.S. from assasinations, but convincing someone else that Saddam needed to “leave power” is just the type of carefully worded bull we needed. Thats the sort of flexible morality I can get down with, as opposed to this abu ghraib bs.