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Last Time, I Swear
By John
So William Arkin of the Washington Post decided to respond to Blackfive, Badgers Forward, John Donovan, and I after we collectively called shenanigans on his milblogger column (John Donovan was far more gracious than I'm going to be...)
So....besides spelling my four-letter first name wrong, Arkin continues to neglect actual column writing in exchange for crawling from one disasterous point to another. Which gives me plenty of ammo, even though....ugh...I really do know better. I shouldn't stoop, y'know?
But, and this is what prompted me to respond (sigh....again), he completely missed what I was saying when I responded to his column on the military bloggers conference. And he kind of twisted our words around.
My inbox has been filled with comments from Red Sox fans and MilBloggers ever since I attempted to link the two last week. I used the metaphor of sports reporting to observe that Americans would be better off if we paid even a fraction of attention to the military that we pay to baseball. Also attracting comments was my post describing the tension between the YouTube generation's expectation of Internet access and the military's need to control its own.No. Arggh. No, no, no, no....emphatically freakin' no.Red Sox fans essentially said this: Hey, baseball's interesting. As fans, we're a part of something.
MilBloggers said this: War is not fun, and we are not merely fans. In many cases, we are soldiers. The implication was that only they are qualified to comment about their endeavor.
My point was that stupid people should not be considered authorities on military and national security. I have no problem with Hippy Joe launching a 4 hour lecture on the role of airpower in the tactical environment, but I do want people to realize that he'd be more in his element if he were discussing the role of water bongs in the campus environment.
Here's a better example. This picture...
...prompted this response from a commenter at Prosebeforehos:
That does not look to me to be an authentic fighting man of United States military. Where is his insignia? What type of weapon is that he is carrying? His cammo pattern appears something less than genuine issue. And, I’m not expert, but his boots do not apear to be G.I. –I think this guy could be a washed up police man who just got himself a life long job working for Halibuton. Can this man’s connection to The US Military be verified?
I don't want the commenter silenced. I don't want his freedom of speech limited, restricted, or infringed upon in any way. And I welcome the fact that he's involved in the national debate. But, it's important to recognize that he is absolutely, certifiably clueless. Card-carrying clueless. The fact that he can't properly identify an American soldier has already spoken volumes on his knowledge on the Iraq War. Now look, he has a constitutional right to voice his skepticism and I recognize that... but I am missing the clause in the Constitution where it says that type of punditry is actually helpful to the national debate.
Arkin is a military idiot. He had four years of experience in a 1970s Cold War military that is so different from today's force that he may as well have spent his time in the Bolivian coast guard. His columns, -"obscene amenities" anyone?- are weekly proof of his intellectual distance from soldiers and the Armed Forces at large, and his understanding of military blogging and milbloggers is just plain embarassing.
Arkin says "as the Iraq war has made abundantly clear, our government -- and our military -- needs the input of more people, not fewer. Thankfully, the Internet is ideally suited to providing it."
In other words, he wants opinion polls to dictate the direction of the war. Thankfully, we live in a Constitutional Republic and not a pure democracy, and mob rule is decidedly not how we run our wars. We trust experts more than we trust popular opinion and trends, from government to technology to yes...the military. But I am grateful to him for making this point, because it fits in beautifully with my narrative that William Arkin is a military affairs writer who doesn't understand the most basic tenets of military affairs.
This is a classic leftist move. The anti-war movement doesn't have the backbone of military expertise that the pro-victory crowd enjoys, so they inject this "everyone's voice is equal" crap into the national debate and pretend as if that's the best way to maintain an intellectually honest exchange.
Everyone's voice is not equal. That's naive. And stupid. My opinion on orbital mechanics is not "just as good" as some NASA egghead's, I'm not more informed on economics than the faculty at Harvard Business School, and I don't know more about flying fighter jets than Lex.
So why does Arkin constantly seek to water down the opinions of the experts (soldiers and milbloggers) while elevating the militarily clueless?
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Comments
"ugh...I really do know better. I shouldn't stoop, y'know? - John"
You stoop so that the rest of us don't have to. It's a military thing that some people just don't understand.
It's been how many years since Digi Camies were introduced? And this guy doesn't know that insignias are hard to see when you're in a war zone, because shiny is dead?
That was really good Noonan, dag you learn fast.
Did you know we are scheduled for a cage match over MKH.
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/06/hot_air_sells_o.html
Cordially,
Uncle J
OF course its a US soldier - he is standing straight up and leaning IN THE DIRECTION OF FIRE. HE is likely about to run to it...
I belive it was Stephen Ambrose who once said," when a civilian population sees a group of soldiers coming down the street they shutter their windows, lock their doors and hide, but when they see a group of American soldiers coming they come out onto the street to see and greet them".
Our enemies hide soldiers behind civilians. Our military puts the soldier in front of the civilian.
All the shit our troops take on the "Way they treat Iraqis" those kids sure seem to recognize safety when they see it.
Amen CitSar! I'm no expert on uniforms or gear, but I knew at a glance he was one of my men. Standin' tall. I am so proud of these guys.
I have gone over this entire blog and have found that the owner is extremely smart. I had no desire to comment until the very end. The picture of the man with the children is Very Obviously U.S. Military. Look at his bearing. Look at how though he is surrounded by people-you can see in his poise that he is ready for instant action. Always Ready, Always Prepared. There are some things you see when you have been there that give instant clues. God Bless the naysayers spitting into high winds.
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I'm confused. I thought the Left didn't want my voice in the debate because I haven't served. Now everyone does get to have a voice? Or is it only for those, unlike me, who oppose the war