Emboldened To Be Insulting, Fatuous and Imbecilic

William Arkin, in his column Early Warning, "On National And Homeland Security," has written two posts for the Washington Post which have, shall we say, ahem, indicated his clear dim-wittedness, disrespect and incapability to understand the basic freedoms bestowed upon every citizen of these United States.

He wrote two posts; please see both and in this order: post one, and then post two.

Hugh Hewitt took Mr. Arkin to task and wrote "The Washington Post's William Arkin has penned two poisonous columns revealing his contempt for the American military," and "The Post now faces a business decision: Does it continue to employ as its 'national security and homeland security' expert a military-hater with zero credibility, or does it give him the boot?"

Know what? I'll clip some excerpts here and you can decide. But please; don't simply take my word for it -- read both posts and draw your own conclusions.

From the first column:

The Troops Also Need to Support the American People
I've been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States.

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President's handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

It only gets more insulting and degrading:

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

But it is the United States, and the recent NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

Allow me a moment here if you will, whilst I try to come down from 210/190. I really will make a concerted attempt to minimize the poo-poo-nasty words but I fear some may ultimately slip and snake their way through to sunlight.

First, because they are soldiers, Mr. Arkin would apparently have us believe they have become and should forever be mute; that is to say, shut the fuck up, take the bullets and IEDs for us and keep their damned opinions to themselves. In essence Arkin says: "I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion except when it conflicts with my beliefs -- then it's incumbent upon commanders to discipline their troops for disagreeing with a segment of the American People" -- and clearly not all the American People.

First Big Question: would Arkin have even wasted his time with this article in terms of j'accuse had the soldiers expressed opinions congruent with his own? Huh -- I suspect not.

First Answer From BZ: you hypocrite.

Also, if soldiers are so well paid, so well cared-for, why are some families below the American poverty level? "Vast social support systems?" Ever been to a VA hospital? Good luck. Belonging to the American Military is not an assumed "walk in the park" by any stretch of the imagination.

And "ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them"? What in the fuck do you mean by this, Mr. Arkin? That we shouldn't take care of our own troops? That we might ship iPods and books and candies and PDAs and clean underwear and letters from strangers to the men and women that fight for us is a bad thing?

Check out the photo to the right, Mr. Arkin. My, that's an appealing way to sleep, don't you think? Ah, so comfy! And so easy to let your mind relax from another dull day of dodging RPGs, 7.62 rounds, Semtex, AK-47s and the like. Ah, so simple to be the average American soldier in Iraq. Stress? What stress?

Stress is apparently, for Mr. Arkin, having to decide when to drive to his market for a new bottle of wine for his dinner guests. Red? White? Merlot? I am so perplexed; I can't take it! Where's my Paxil, dammit?!

And best yet, Mr. Arkin has just labeled all our good soldiers as nothing more than mercenaries.

Mercenaries.

The next column he writes (see this link again, post two) consists of his attempting to ameliorate and make light of the fact he called our soldiers "mercenaries."

And then, because it's a blog, here's a comment from some inarticulate shitstick belittling not only our freedoms, but this nation's soldiers having died for his ability to write:

Sieg Heil To The Glorious Military For They Brought Us Forth Our Freedoms. BFD!
Posted by: Sieg Heil February 1, 2007 10:31 PM

Ah yes, there's a good American.

And Mr. Arkin, you too are a good American, just like Sieg Heil above.

You despicable bastard.

BZ