All hell has broken loose on the right wing Milblogs concerning an article William Arkin wrote at the Washington Post. In this article, Arkin dared to cross the line and say that the Military is out of line when it criticizes the American Public for being against the war. The military’s place is to do the bidding of the United States citizenry .. period! It is not for them to criticize the American population for deciding they no longer want to fund a war.
Let’s nip this in the bud before this “military owes us” line turns into another chickenhawk or “send Jenna and Barbara” embarrassment.
This commenter, along with Arkin, seem to have forgotten one simple, underlying fact: the American public voted into office elected officials who in turn voted to send US troops into harm’s way. Which, roughly translated, means that the troops are already doing the “bidding” of the American people. There hasn’t been a vote to cut funding and there hasn’t been a vote to pull forces out of theater. As long as our troops are there, responsibility dictates that they are wholeheartedly supported by the very people who choose to send them to war.
However, since the core ideology that drives the anti-war movement naturally repulses personal responsibility as a guiding value, it’s unsurprisingly that many of them find Arkin’s argument compelling.
That aside, this just another empty soundbite, absent from any sort of factual grounding, that will no doubt become another stupid rallying call for the anti-war movement. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Chickenhawks.
“the American public voted into office elected officials who in turn voted to send US troops into harm’s way. Which, roughly translated, means that the troops are already doing the “bidding” of the American people.”
Ahhhh this fact is Democracy 101 that no one will explain to the “dissenters”. Democracy is a government of many But One. That means that everyone in the Democratic nation we call the US agrees to have the right to dissent disagree say what they want and do what they want up until the point the Country as a whole decides. Once that decision is made it is everyone’s duty to put thier personal feeling to the side and pull as one to succeed in enacting that decision. Thier is some laws I don’t agree with but Freedom of speech/dissent doesn’t give me the right to just ignore the majority dicision to honor & enact X law.
When everyone is only responsible to honoring the laws they personally like or agree with that is not Democracy that is Anarchy.
The majority of the population voted not once but twice once the Congressional vote for military action second the 04′ presidentail election. This last 06′ election was not a vote on the war the congress and senate are a vote on Domestic policy. 08′ is the next foreign policy vote.
hey don’t disagree Freeman (on pretty much everything).
In regard to the comment that you didn’t care for, take a look at pictures from the latest anti-war movement, and tell me that socialism isn’t the driving ideology that’s moving those masses.
Socialism abhors personal responsibility.
That’s not being insulting, that’s just being factual.
Hey John, I’ll admit that I’ve been quite contrary at times – it’s just a product of our different perspectives. Seriously, like I’ve said before, I’m commenting here to learn more about perspectives that don’t come naturally to me, and offer my perspective in return. It’s not my intent to be disagreeable just for the sake of it, and I’ve striven to be as polite and respectful as possible of opinions I don’t share. I lurked here for quite some time before making my first comment because I didn’t want to come off as a troll. I was highly impressed then that, though I completely mis-read the intent (and in doing so, must have come off as a troll anyway) of the post that I was commenting on (I believe it was one of yours), I was treated with respect.
I’ll also admit that I’ve been a hard-ass for civility, probably unneccessarily so this time. Your comment wasn’t so much inflammatory, as perhaps a bit misguided in my opinion.
You say “In regard to the comment that you didn’t care for, take a look at pictures from the latest anti-war movement, and tell me that socialism isn’t the driving ideology that’s moving those masses.”
Well, John, I guess I just don’t know how to look at the outward appearance of somebody (or a crowd of people) and instantly make accurate moral judgements about their “core ideologies”, sense of “personal responsibility”, or “guiding values”. I also fail to understand how people excersizing their right to “peaceably assemble” “to petition the government for a redress of grievances” constitutes (no pun intended) any sort of indication of socialism as a driving ideology – it looks like democracy to me. To my mind, everybody has the right to their opinion, and everybody else has the right to disagree.
As always, kindest regards, and keep yourself safe!