William Arkin just won't shut up.
It was bad enough when Arkin called our soldiers mercenaries and said that while he recognized their right to free speech, they don't have a right to disapprove of people who say they support the troops but not the mission.
Now he's mad because a lot of people wrote back. It's probably the first time he's had more than four comments on any thread and he's a little, shall we say, shell shocked.
I know what it's like to write something that's a bit unpopular with the subject matter. When I quoted real live feminists who said abortion was "no big deal" and "just a 20 minute procedure," they got really, really mad and bombarded my site calling me anti-woman, a fascist, and a phallic worshipper (I'm sure my husbanad wishes I was!). It's tough when you have 50 comments on a thread and 48 of them are blasting you and your views, but such is the life of a person who puts their unvarnished opinions out on the internet.
In other words, don't whine, Mr. Arkin. You can't say you honestly didn't expect to take some heat for saying the soldiers "should be grateful" that the public doesn't blame them for Abu Gharib and "every rape and murder" in Iraq. Or that soldiers wouldn't take umbrage at you writing
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?
Or
I'll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that's where their frustrations come in. I'll accept as well that they are young and naïve and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses them.
America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform. I don't believe America needs a draft though I imagine we'd be having a different discussion if we had one.
It's inconceivable to me that you expected responses to your arrogance to be dignified and polite. To be frank, you haven't earned that, Mr. Arkin.
Arkin responds to his critics by cherry-picking comments to make his points. Perhaps they really are emblematic of the others, but it seems that, instead of realizing why so many people would lash out at him, he has taken the stiff-necked approach and decided to tell them where to get off.
Again, I understand the frustration of those in uniform and the supporters of the war. But these are not the only people who have a valid opinion, and there is great danger for the nation - as Bush-Cheney and company have already demonstrated - when people arrogate to themselves the sole determinant to make a judgment about national security.
And this:
But there is such contempt for civil society in these words and I wonder where it comes from?
Well, gee, I don't know. Maybe if Arkin spent a little time with our friends at Pandagon, he just might figure out why there seems to be such contempt for civil society.
But according to Arkin, it is only the military who are contemptuous of civil society. He brings up the molding of esprit de corps but somehow makes it sound more like brainwashing. Worse, he ends with this:
The notion then that we should defer to the military to fight when and how and where they want is absurd. As the debate about the Iraq war demonstrates, war-making is a shared endeavor and the arrogant and intolerant few who think they are above the people seem to be those who are wearing the uniform.
I don't think anyone advocates the military do whatever the hell they want. What they were attacking was his notion that it is possible to support the troops and not support the mission. Arkin has proved that those who say this really don't support the troops or the mission.
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