Bill O'Reilly is really losing it. He's promoting an "expose" of NBC's "liberal agenda" tonight, but the comments he's so upset about -- made by NBC military analyst William Arkin -- were published on the Washington Post's Web site, not broadcast by NBC. It should be a fun Factor tonight...
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/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 sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks - that's why it is news - and I'm also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story.
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.
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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.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/01/the_troops_also_need_to_suppor.htmlKudos to Arkin - about damn time someone said this. I'm getting sick of the crap that somehow the military is placed a tier above the citizen! It's like Rome or Starship Troopers. I feel for the troops. I want to see them come home safely. I want to see them taken care of following their service. I think the country owes them that. I admire the courage they have to show to do what they do. I cannot imagine facing going out on patrol in Iraq - don't know if I could do that. But damn it, their service does not elevate them above the rest of us! Nor should their votes count for more than our votes.