To Beat on One's Brain

Noted Citizen Journalist and famed silly ass Confederate Yankee makes a heartfelt plea: please oh please do not be mean to the troops!

Both sides, right and left, have their own political agendas. Sympathizers in the blogosphere and in media organizations large and small bring their own biases to the table as they discuss war policy. That is understood, expected, and perfectly understandable.

What is not understandable is why critics feel it is necessary to attack the troops as they attack the mission. They claim to be able to support the troops while critcizing the mission, but in practice, that is often not the case.

How touching.

We have of course heard this song before, and Mr. Yankee does not neglect to hum the familiar verses to do with Evil Leftist Bloggers and the Perfidious New Republic Beauchamp Treason. But he does introduce a pompous new note to the chorus:

When General Petreaus comes back to the United States to brief the President and Congress, he will not do so as a partisan. He promises that, “The Ambassador and I are going to give it to them straight and then allow the folks at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue make what clearly is a national decision.“

He will speak for the American military, as the Commanding General of our forces in Iraq. He will not speak as a Republican General, or a Democratic General, but as a General of the Army of the United States of America. He will provide the facts, and let us discuss, decipher, and no doubt, spin what he reports.

Fine. Let us spin the data and the findings to support our political viewpoints.

But please, let's do so without attacking the integrity of those who serve, which is a tactic becoming more common, and repulsive, as time goes by.

Got that?

To criticize General Petraeus is to go after The Troops.

So cut that out. You people are bastard people, and Mr. Yankee hates your ass face.

(Below: Mr. Yankee in action, from his community theater days.)

Comments

[jayinbmore]

CY needs to get off the moralizing and back to what he's good at: obsessively diagramming photographs of Sean Penn in a boat.

[flory]

Lemme make sure I understand:

To say -- "General Petraeus is a bald faced liar who is cherrypicking statistics to support the Bush War agenda" is to disrespect the troops.

But to say "General Petraeus is an idiot who's being played by the Bush political machine into giving an inaccurate status assessment" is to support the troops.

Gotcha.

[Righteous Bubba]

Support the tropes!

[Bloix]

Criticizing Petraeus is attacking the integrity of those who serve, but viciously slandering Scott Thomas Beauchamp is not.

[American Citizen]

Ah yes, the Petraeus Gambit in action - build him up and hope he doesn't disappoint.

[Spokane Moderate]

So, it would be an insult to every PFC to call General Petraeus "General Betrayus?" Gotcha. Won't do that. No sirree.

[The Left]

I hate the troops and I hate their ass-faces! (slams phone down)