Stupid pundit tricks. FbL deconstructs, so you don’t have to.
Where do we find such men? More importantly, what do we do with them?
Update: Do read Cassandra as well.
Update 2: Do you know what surprises me, when I think about it? How very unsurprised I am by all of this. How little emotion I can summon for it. There’s a clinical part of me that wonders what psychic well all of this contempt and projection comes from though. What imagined slights occurred in the man’s past – did he not get past the first cuts in little league? Did he envy the quarterback with the cheerleader on his arm? Did moms tell him he was special anyways, just as special as any of the popular kids? Did he burn with the knowledge that he really wasn’t?
Never know I guess.
He’s still digging by the way, under the unintentionally ironic heading of “The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out.” He’s not referring to himself, though. In case that wasn’t clear.
Seems he’s some class of victim, now.
Inevitable, I suppose.
I could think of a lot of things, most of which would land me in jail for various lengths of time. What an idiot…
Shipmates,
What a maroon…..
Sadly, he’s typical of the species that infests the People’s Republic of Vermont these days.
Respects,
I will keep it simple and post a short piece from what I said at FbL’s (and as an aside, thanks for getting me back there Lex).
“Jacka** is as jacka** does.” Hoping that’s a proper English sentence.
What do we do with him? We blindfold him and throw him in that cave with bin Laden and the rest of them. Then lets see if he still thinks our soldiers are too young, too naive and frustrated with the war.
Honestly, these fools get up my left nostril in a big way.
Mercenaries fight and kill for the money. Obviously Arkin hasn’t seen the DOD pay scale lately. At the very least he should be tried and convicted for slander.
Would he be singing a different tune if we were fighting in Vermont in stead of Iraq? Hopefully we will never have to find out.
I’m speechless.
What a sad and pathetic little mind. Vermonter, huh? Isn’t that the state that gives child predators a free pass? The handufull of you up there with a clue better act fast… I hear Terminex does house calls.
From my wingman, Booger:
“It is clear this individuals expert military knowledge allows him to make the split second decisions which will allow our mercenaries…oh sorry, soldiers to be successful. Danny Glover, Rosie O’Donnell, Hanoi Jane, Pelosi, Kerry, Kucinich and Kennedy all have that same gifted level of military expertise.
That this self anointed pseudo-intellectual sincerely thinks “HE” represents the vast majority and shares the “correct” public shared view is both repulsive and repugnant. He is typical and consistent with his ilk. But then obviously, American Idol is clearly MORE interesting and important than any made up threat from the Wahabi sect. Those Islamo-fundementalists have studied here in the U.S. and understand the news media. Further, they are counting on the MSM consistent behavior and effect. They have fully incorporated Mr. Arkin and his ilk into their strategy to destroy Western World culture.
As one of those folks currently residing at Club Gitmo, said, “your Liberals are sheep, we will slaughter them ALL at OUR convenience”.
“excuse me if I do not think I have it wrong,” verse from an Australian country singer.
Mr. Arkin views himself as “the Sheep dog” of our country. We, who are Sheep Dogs, know Mr. Arkin is just a loud annoying sheep. The Islamofacists, anarchists and other enemies of the United States of America also recognize him as a bleating sheep and useful idiot.
All too typical…No doubt he would have been waiting for Uncle Sam to be packing moving and saving his stuff after Katrina. As well as evacuating his sorry a$$. Of course without having to say it, he would also be expecting/demanding that Uncle be paying to rebuild his river/levee edge house too.
He talks of the Military coup which would overthrow America… yet he bleats loudly for outlawing individual ownership of the very same weapons which assure that coup from ever happening.
Pseudo-intellectual…Ayn Rand had it right…”The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”
The collapse of America will come because of the Mr. Arkins across the U.S. Not as he pontificates, shielded from that collapse the pseudo-intellectuals themselves engineered. Whether or not they realize it, they are NEOCOMMs.”
Ditto.
b2
Re: Update #2. Yes, Lex all of that. But I wonder what the straw was that broke this particular jackass’s back? Some flaw in his personality perhaps that prevented him from continuing his Army career in the 70′s? Of course, he was serving when morale was at an all time low, was he a facilitator of that low morale, or a self-inflicted victim of circumstance? Perhaps, one too many low marks on ones fitrep will provide the deep seated embers from which to draw the flame to spew ones misguided opinions. Or, maybe he’s just an idiot.
Oh yes Lex, the irony of that follow-up title! If I said all I’d like to regarding this mess, I’d be dodging the ghost of my mother all night!
Lee, I vote that he’s just an idiot…and an arrogant idiot at that!
I’ve been reading Arkin’s work for well over 20 years now, mostly because of his nuclear research(along w/Cochrane (NOT Johnny C.) et al). Absent the current column in the WaPo I would readily agree he is an arrogant a$$. This column and the subsequent are over the top, even for him. Makes me wonder what the real pathology is that’s at work here…
- SJS
Sandwiched between his two columns that have everyone steaming, is a bit of rational and even conciliatory writing on this subject. Is it just me, or does it sound nothing like the rest of his writing?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/02/post_11.html
Seriously, it really jumped out at me as different in tone/style. Am I being too snarky, or does it read as something his bosses ordered him to write (or even wrote FOR him) to try to rescue him from his own stupidity?
FbL: I missed that one and it is different and self-contradictory. On one hand Arkin says the military has no right to expect anything from American citizens, but further down he says this:
“…we have a contract with them, because they are our sons and daughters and a part of us…”
So is he deliberately being obtuse to somehow distract people from what he really means? In the end he tries a complete turnaround with this:
“…But I just can’t stand by and do nothing when I can see that your risk is no longer being matched by a commitment or a plan or the prospect for victory or a just ending…”
Oh, so now he respects them, acknowledges that we DO have a commitment to them and can’t stand to see them take uncalculated risks?
He can’t have it both ways…and if indeed someone has forced him to write this to “…rescue him from his own stupidity” then I say that person is also stupid; that column should have been his good-bye.
I sit frothing at the mouth, seriously wondering if I can stand to read any more…
wanting to flee to a cave in the mountains and never more deal with other humans……
and also wondering if the trickle of falling mortar from the foundation of our civilization has turned to a flood……
I like this:
http://www.oldwardogs.us/2007/02/wapo_weasels_ii.html
I do see a sliver of truth in Arkin’s main thesis point, which he dilutes with all his dribble in trying to support it: We in the military need to recognize that the American public has a fundamental DUTY to question military actions and not blindly fall in line. In honor of Lex’s “What I Believe”, here’s the humble moderate view of a Southeast Missouri farmboy, hopefully I can articulate my point:
I believe my contract (oath) is a unique paradigm: I will follow orders, period (with the caveat of the unlawful order, because we DO want our people to think). If we took a populous military vote on every war/operation, we’d obviously never accomplish anything and would function under a different title than USA. The corollary to MY oath or contract is that Congress and the democracy I unquestionably protect WILL question those wars/operations. The Commander-in-Chief’s role is to provide civilian control of the military. The protocol of the President is to not wear a military uniform, even if he’s retired military, to keep that ideal from being called into question. To ME, this distinction creates a significant and honorable difference between myself and say, a North Korean or Cuban soldier/sailor, who follows orders merely at the whim of a dictator, usually after being fed a generous amount of propaganda. While this does not release me from the responsibility of my citizenship, I nonetheless feel that my service goes to a much higher ideal. This also helps insulate us in the military (and out) from cults of personality and military coups. Simply, this dual contract is to keep us from going to war because a powerful few say so. Hence, I feel that it is the public’s DUTY to question why the government is sending our sons and daughters to die, and you better believe I damn well want the American public to hold the value of my life in high esteem.
Secondly, I honestly don’t believe any civilian can truly understand what it’s like to be in the military or have a truly accurate idea of all the sacrifices we make without being in or married to the military. Hence I can’t fully expect them to. I was not raised in a military family, and I can look back at a host of incorrect assumptions I had prior to entering. And honestly, I can understand the opinion of a father or mother who has lost their “child” questioning that sacrifice for a fundamentally different society halfway around the world that not only doesn’t seem to value or even want democracy, and even seems to shun it and hate us. That parent has a hard time reconciling their loss with the concept of honorary service to an ideal or the Constitution. The military needs to educate the public better on military life than just recruiting ads, because Hollywood is not going to. I’m beginning to drift toward the “mushy science” blog, let me right the ship quickly.
A soldier dodging bullets and SEEING some of his buddies die DOES NOT have to be pulled aside and told not to question the American public. Arkin is high and right on that one. But a soldier/sailor does need to understand that the public does have a right, I put forth a duty, to question military action and justify it, and most 9 to 5′ers simply cannot relate and therefore truly appreciate his sacrifice. My bottom line is that it is simply inherent (in the Constitutional ideal we’ve sworn to protect) that we’ve agreed to disagree, and it fosters a necessary discussion to keep the government in check.
So what do we do with such men as Arkin? The Arkins have a right to voice their opinions and we have a responsibility to do more than just call them idiots, but to engage them in frank and deliberate discussions.
Sorry for the lengthy discourse, you probably have some insight now into why my callsign is Shrimpburger. This time would have probably been better spent trying to clear the backlog of blue folders off my desk, but at least I won’t mull about chewing on this all day.
Oh, of course there’s the grain of truth in it, or else we could dispatch the fool with a “ah, well, the man’s a little tetched.”
But he’s taken a point and run it straight into the wall, is all.
The soldier has a right to believe in his mission, and he has the right to feel aggrieved if a cottage industry has grown up to question that mission. Questioning the mission (and not the soldier) is a protected and precious right. But the soldier has the right to do his sacred task without being labeled a mercenary, or told that he’s lucky to have our support while he bleeds in our stead, and he has the right not to be smeared as a rapist or sadist, too.
It was just terrible fucking form, was all. In my humble view.
I couldn’t have said it better myself Lex. In the words of Gus Grissom in “The Right Stuff”…”f***** eh, Bubba.” Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
I suspect this Arkin character comes straight out of the comic books from the 60′s hippie generation. Now being a yuppie who hasn’t quite grown up yet with that mentality of “make love, not war”, sex, drugs, rock’n roll and all that. Which btw, is the generation of our government today too.
YOu must remember that Arkin is the typical liberal. He firmly believes in free speech as long as whoever’s speaking agrees with him.
I did three tours in Vietnam with the 5th Special Forces Group. Following the Tet Offensive in 1968, the commander of the NVA strongly considered surrender,but chose to fight on because of the anti-war demonstrations led by the like of Jane Fonda, John Kerry and the rest of the collection of human waste.
Between 1968 and 1974, there were 29,504 Americans killed in Vietnam. Millions were slaughtered in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and thousands more lost their lives at sea trying to escape the carnage.
How many do you suppose Arkin and the anti-war wimps plan on killing this time around.
This is also why those who say they support the troops but not the mission. How can they take part in or support any activity that does nothing but get more Americans killed.
YOu must remember that Arkin is the typical liberal. He firmly believes in free speech as long as whoever’s speaking agrees with him.
I did three tours in Vietnam with the 5th Special Forces Group. Following the Tet Offensive in 1968, the commander of the NVA strongly considered surrender,but chose to fight on because of the anti-war demonstrations led by the like of Jane Fonda, John Kerry and the rest of the collection of human waste.
Between 1968 and 1974, there were 29,504 Americans killed in Vietnam. Millions were slaughtered in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and thousands more lost their lives at sea trying to escape the carnage.
How many do you suppose Arkin and the anti-war wimps plan on killing this time around.
This is also why those who say they support the troops but not the mission are wrong. How can they take part in or support any activity that does nothing but get more Americans killed.