Letters to the Editor
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Oops, my mistake....
Hemingway would be the fifth photo shown in the rogues gallery of rightwing rat-finks. Not the first. I cannot attest as to whether Glenn judged them on appearance as he did Hemingway. My apologies.
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Apparently Chickenhawk Brigades Really Think People Are Stupid Enough To Fall for the Cop / Firefighter Analogy
Apparently the rabid defenders of the chickenhawk squads really think people take their embarassingly sad, whining, and pathetic attempt to analogize between launching and continuing wars with the work of the police and of firefighters.
But, but, why can't I scream that we need to launch more wars and blow up countries and then make the soldiers stay as long as I want and don't have to go myself?
Isn't that the same as you saying we should pass a law to make something a crime? Isn't it?
It's hard to think of quick and interesting analogies of what the right wing chickenhawk warmongers would be in policing or fire-fighting. You can come up with them, but they end up being paragraphs long and boring and by that point either you've gotten the poing or you never will.
Maybe it would be like insisting that to deal with organized crime in a major city, we denounce the "law enforcement" FBI approach of trying to investigate and prosecute as cowardly and pro-crime and anti-cop -- hey, the investigators had their chance but the organized criminals weren't fully cooperating so it's time to do what needs to be done ; so then we put the entire city's police force on 24/7 SWAT duty for the next 5 - 10 years and tell them to bust in and raid each and every home until they figure out who the criminals are and stop them.
Or maybe we start chanting about how it's not enough to fight the fires when they actually alight, that fire is the secret enemy that's just waiting to attack, that what we need to do is start a huge, huge fire in a neighboring city and by doing so we think we'll draw all the sleeper fires out of our city and into the neighboring conflagration so that we can fight the fire over there instead of fighting it over here.
The problem is that right wingers will think these sound like great ideas, and I really don't think we should encourage them with any more fantasies.
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Oh really?
You can have opinions about the military without having served but you can not lead the military without having served. Nor can you send others to die without risking anything yourself in the cause.-- Denning
How does that square with Bill Clinton as Commander in Chief, and Hillary Clinton as aspiring Commander in Chief? Neither served.
It's like so many other specialties. You can have opinions about medicine but you can not perform surgery on others without being a physician.
Which interestingly enough is what Webb is doing. On what basis is his program based? It would seem to me that if he is commenting solely on having served in the past, the people serving now would be better informed. Is he a doctor? Have studies been made? Or is this just a backdoor troop drawdown?
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@GG
Glenn, you're in "The Week" again (8/31/07 issue, pg.4 re: Padilla) Looking at that date, I apparently picked up an old one laying around the house... Anyway, you're regularly quoted there.
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No no, Tilde Boy, you are entitled to your ignorance
But when you talk about the military, you embarrass yourself. That's all I'm saying. People who never served in the armed forces trying to describe things military is the equivalent of watching a mob of monkeys trying to fuck a football. You have no clue.
But please, do yammer on. You amuse the veterans.
Gotta leave now, my college football team is about to take the field.
G'night ladies, and I leave you with a quote from "A few good men."
"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Tilde Boy? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."
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I sure hope so, but I doubt it...
Or is this just a backdoor troop drawdown?
-- shooter242
I know it would be impossible to imagine that a politician would actually care about the military, but my read is that Webb's bill is about the troops, not a draw-down. I know Republicans only use troops as props and canon fodder, but people who have served tend not to do that. That's a bit of an issue for the neocons since none of them (that I can think of) ever served in any real capacity, most none at all - other priorities and all that. That Webb's bill will force a draw-down tells you all you need to know about neocons pretending to support the troops, i.e., that giving them what should be a normal rest will change the troop levels.
You should be for this bill Stupor, as it us the only way we can continue your infinite war without a draft. Oh wait, you just want to pull the "stabbed in the back routine" don't you? How can you be so cruel to the troops Stupor?