My local printed propaganda mouthpiece just printed a syllogism by Robert Kaplan (here?, it didn't say who he was, so apologies if not). The title?
Today's fighting men and women follow an ancient, elite code of honor and duty. And Democrats just don't get it, says author ROBERT D. KAPLAN.
I, of course, am fascinated by wingnuts and their philosophical military camps.
[ONE NOTE, I did check the Tags and didn't find this, but it could be operator error. If so, my apologies.]
I've catalogued these camps as I've run across them: too cowardly (Protein Wisdom), too busy (Jonah Goldberg), too Pinky&TheBrain (Tomorrow we're going to conquer the world, Dick Cheney), too rich (George Bush) and so on. Noticeably lacking was/is the Republican veteran - much more GOP effort is spent in avoidance than actually serving. This website, Who Served, pretty much catalogues that research desert.
Anyway, the gist of the article you have by now. That military personnel vote Republican and Mr. Kaplan puts forth various reasons, with my paraphrasing:
- They'll get to fight before the Democrats achieve peace
- The military folk like REPUBLICAN HOLLYWOOD: We Were Soldiers and The Green Berets
- John Kerry pretended to throw away his medals
- Something about Churchill. Wingnuts always go there, but it's usually a logic bridge too far for me
- For some reason we couldn't go to war before 9-11 because soldiers might get hurt, but now we can because soldiers might get hurt. (Yea, doesn't that logic set the hippocampus all a twitter)
- World War II is stored in the same memory traces as the Peloponnesian War, so it's the only war the left leaning liberal elites can support
- Today's soldiers aren't citizen
hoplitessoldiers in the PeloponnesianWorld War II way
- Fighting in Iraq is how we can validate the Vietnam effort. (Puzzling how Vietnam/Iraq comparisons or employment as literary devices are only valid when put forth by wingnuts)
Yadda, yadda, and more yadda. Then comes two money quotes - and I mean it in the same working vein as MONEY SHOT is used in its Work-A-Day world:
"I like Bush because he's dumb and stubborn like us," one Marine corporal in Iraq told me only half in jest. "He'll fight to the finish here, no matter how bad it looks now." In other words, pace Harvard's Harvey Mansfield, in his forthcoming Manliness: A Modest Defense, Mr Bush is a man who, like the grunts, comprehends that duty takes precedence over perfect virtue."
Wait a sec, I need to reach up and take down that two-by-four that just landed next to my soon to be cauliflowered ear. Wow, W understand DUTY. I'm confused. What part of DUTY involved diddling secretaries while AWOL from an safe posting wrangled by Wealthy/Connected Entitlement? That's the DUTY I want...
Second MONEY SHOTQUOTE:
Grunts - men, too, in Mr. Mansfield's definition - hate being portrayed as victims as much as they hate being portrayed as war criminals: whether victims of not enough up-armoured vehicls or of an ill-begotten war. Marines, in particular, have always taken prinde in making due with inferior equipment. That's because they see themselves as warriors, which is exactly how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sees them. If Democrats see our armed foreces likewise, they haven't satisfactorily communicated it to the troops.
That's certainly to the point. No, not the obvious point, the one far, far away from soldier's families buying armour, far away from Rumsfeld being upbraided at press conferences by soldiers complaining about doing their own uparmoring from dumps, far away from all the evidence of complaints about poor equipment. That other point, way over there with that man behind the curtain. And it certainly explains why virtually all Iraqi military veterans, running for office, are running as Democrats.
One more highlight into what a detestable character this Kaplan is. He used this quote:
When I asked another Marine in Iraq why he hated Mr. Kerry so much, he snapped, "Because he wasn't proud of his service in Vietnam - he threw away his medals at a demonstration that only rich kids went to." MR KAPLAN PUTS IN THIS ASIDE: (Actually, Mr. Kerry only pretended to throw them away, but this marine did not know that.)
But after the Mr. Bush comprehends DUTY, Mr. Kaplan passed on the chance to tell the audience about how conflicted Mr. Bush was between a sweet, cavalier position in the National Guard and the choice of firing a gun next to his ear drum. Mr. Kaplan, why would you do that? Because it points out the etheral character of your weighty interpretation?
With all the talk about commentators being paid under the table to write stuff, what kind of tripe would have to be written to receive payments to emasculate the obvious? Certainly not the tripe emasulated points of this writer, certainly not tripe so lucid, so cogent, so...aw, hell, somebody ask this guy to deny it.
What kind of [academic, citizen, partisan, republican apologist, propagandizer, ...] would write such a plug for the leaking of this administration's policy dike? If ever one deserved a Karmic dowager's hump, this would be, you know, the guy.
Have you no decency?
reposted at www.mightcan.typepad.com/mightcan