In the wake of the censure of retired Lt. General Philip Kensinger—the commander of the Army Special Operations Command when Army Ranger Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire under his command--several people are pointing to some Leftists’ unbelievably ridiculous conclusion that the Bush Administration ordered Tillman’s fellow soldiers to murder him in response to his Leftist leanings. Between that sad series of events, the as-yet uncorroborated events told to the world by Scott Beauchamp and the numerous true, false and spun occurences inserted here and there throughout the timeline which started at 9/11/01, the demonization of the present-day military is near completion.
The best take on the Left’s attitude toward today’s military comes from Ace of Spades:
[O]ur troops can only fulfill two roles in the leftist narrative:1) Jingoistic, stupid, white-trash/ghetto-trapped uneducated baby-killing monster and propaganda tool of the Bush administration; or
2) Victim of the Bush Administration, either by the military's state-of-the-art teratogenesis (creation of monsters) or by simple murder.
In Tillman's case, he went from 1 to 2 in quite a hurry as soon as the left realized he'd been murdered by his fellow soldiers on Dick Cheney's orders. [SNIP]
The baby-killers are back, it seems, after five years of the left vowing it would never, ever, ever resort to such slanders again.
As I and many others have been saying since the Iraq War started, the Left’s contention that they really did support the troops has been easily seen to be false. Every method of “support” that the Left has offered to the troops—from CODEPINK's weekly vigil at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to various attempts to “rescue” the troops by bringing them home before victory can reasonably be expected—has amounted two simple assertions: “you’re morons and we need to save you from your stupidity.”
For a while, open contempt for the troops was a bad PR move for the Left, so some of them devised “support” tactics like those used by CodePink; tactics which were laughable and transparent insults. But now that the Iraq War is losing advocates, the Left feels freer to be themselves.
It was always a no-win situation for the image of the troops in the Leftist mind. They'd keep expressing their "love" while occasionally trotting out a bogus soldier like Jesse MacBeth—one who was willing to admit to war crimes with out having served much more than a few weeks in boot camp. Such a creature and those like him could be easily picked apart. Even real soldiers who told questionable stories as did Scott Beauchamp could have their stories quickly refuted by two things: fact and logic.
What makes it a no-win situation, however, is the fact that war is a human endeavor and the military is populated by humans—humans who, like all others, fall short of the earthly and heavenly standards set for them. Sometimes we humans fall short accidentally (Tillman), sometimes intentionally (Abu Ghraib).
But since the Left’s only genuine desire is to undermine military action in both Iraq and Afghanistan simply because both actions were put in motion by a Republican president, it seizes the opportunity to hold up these failings and say, “see? SEE?” Thereby the made-up stories and the true stories can be jumbled up into one big toxic brew of “stupid-brutal soldiers who are lead astray by the evil Bush Administration.” One has to admire such a neat packaging, one in which all conclusions lead to “wrong” and “evil.”
Winning politically means more to them than does survival. As a matter fact, the Left doesn't believe that this country's survival is at stake. They believe that power, wielded "properly" can assuage the Islamists, make them go back to their homelands or live peacefully among non-Muslims without cutting off any heads or blowing sh*t up. All "we" have to do is anything that is directly in opposition to what the Bush Administration and his "stupid-brutal" minions--the military--have done. What the Left believes is that political power can be used to right all wrongs, heal all wounds, resolve all misunderstandings--but only if it's in their hands. And they'll do anything, sell anybody out, to get it back.
Well, if we get another President Clinton or a President Obama, all I have to say is: good luck with that.
This is the deal: if we leave Iraq prematurely, bailing out of Afghanistan will shortly follow. If that happens things will get worse here—and I’m not just referring to the terrorists. Because if the terrorists either follow us home or the ones already here get the signal to act, the Left—who continues to ignore all the precursors to 9/11 and, therefore, has never believed Islamists when they say that their only goal is to kill, convert or subdue the world to Islam--will find a way to blame that on Bush and, yes, on the military.
And if that happens, we're all screwed.
Recent Comments