Welcome WaPo readers.  My rebuttal to Mr Arkin's response can be read here

Update:  Who is William Arkin you may ask?  Read about him here.  And Listen to his interview at Hot Air to really hear his disdain for yourself.

I posted a video last week where an NBC news team interviewed  some troops who expressed sincere frustration to the growing feeling of betrayal they have concerning America's lackluster support.

"If they’re going to support us, support us all the way" was their simple and heartfelt message.

Well William Arkin of the WaPo responded and in essence told them you are lucky to have the people's respect at all, and you should be thankful for the paycheck we give you, so shut up and quit whining.  No that's not a quote, but it is damn hard not to read this any other way.

If you cannot handle a pissed off vet venting over this, look away now.  I may use a bad word or two.

The Troops Also Need to Support the American People

From the word go, he offends me.  Hey dipstick, the troops DO support the American people: with their lives.

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.

Sure it is.  They have free speech and can be critical of the American People if they want, particularly when their lives are on the line.  They have every right to express their frustration when they feel the support foir what they feel is an honorable mission is reroding.

But what you do not seem to get, jackass, is a lot of their frustration is not against the everyday person, it is against idiot journalists that paint an unfair representation of the war in Iraq, and against the power hungry politicians who demagogue the issue for political gain.

They did not breach any military protocol that would warrant them any official chastisement.  Why demand they be reprimanded?

And I wager, if they were anti war, and back home the public supported the war, you would be lovingly praising them for standing up for their beliefs, and if the brass had chewed them out, you would be the first to decry the censorship.  Your hypocrisy is disgusting.

He details the soldiers comments and then says:

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.

Because:

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.

Sure, guilt by association.  Be lucky we don't make you share the blame?  Is that the message Bill?  the people indulge them?  By treating the incidents as they were?  Isolated cases of bad people doing bad things?  No he thinks the soldiers are LUCKY that the people don't turn on them en masse.  How just.

How fricking unreal is that?  May I remind you that the media's grand standing of false stories like the infamous Koran Abuse lies incited violence against the troops.  Sit down buddy, and share some blame yourself.

We just don't see very man "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

Liar.  We just saw that last weekend, read the papers.

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage,

Way below the poverty level for many, and behind their civilian counterparts 

take care of their families,

Barely.  The cutbacks in dependent care are on the record, and the military only does so much. 

provide them with housing and medical care

Well, yea those coolio tents and barracks rock huh?  And sure, when you get shot, a doctor is the least we can do... 

and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them,

 ...like bullets, armour and rations...

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?

Well since you do not want them to have their rights to speak, who are you to say?  You seem ok trampling their free speech.

Again, their frustration is as much as WHY the people do not support the war as it is the fact they don't.

I can imagine some post-9/11 moment, when the American people say enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that the people don't get it, that they don't understand that the threat from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and sacrifice and is very real because it is so shadowy, that the very survival of the United States is at stake.

 The sad part is they would be right.

Those Hoover's and Nixon's will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers. If I weren't the United States, I'd say the story end with a military coup where those in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, save the nation from the people.

Nice...

But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

Mercenary?  What a jerk.  Yes Billy boy, my son is a mercenary because he wants to join the Navy and serve his country.

The notion of dirty work is that, like laundry, it is something that has to be done but no one else wants to do it. But Iraq is not dirty work: it is not some necessary endeavor; the people just don't believe that anymore.

And that right there shows that you are friggin clueless.  Many people still do, and some day you will either will thank God they did when a terrorist plot is thwarted, like in Britain, or you will browbeat yourself for not listening and hindering them, because someday the terrorists will strike again, for they are seeing us lose our resolve like we have before, and that makes us vulnerable targets.

More likely though you will do like the Jersey Girls and complain.

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.

 But..

I'll accept as well that they are young and naive 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.

Yes, they are just foolish idiots.  Remember that Charlie Rangal and John Kerry have made it clear they are uneducated dolts?

America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform.

A whole lot more fucking respect then you are giving them, that's for damn sure.

I don't believe America needs a draft though I imagine we'd be having a different discussion if we had one.

Maybe so.  You served in the Army, it's a pity you don't seem to remember what that was like.

Tell me, were you drafted or where you a merc? 

But I am sure that in the coming days I will hear all the criticism (see below for the growing storm) deflected by that service, as well as your own free speech.  Once again that double standard will apply.

But despite that, you have maligned, misjudged and wronged a lot of hardworking sincere people, and you owe them an apology.  Free speech is not a defense for being cruel and wrong.

Don't dismiss them out of your own arrogance, because to them the war is not a headline about body counts, and the people in Iraq are not nameless faces, they are real.  They see and hear and touch the conflict, and I would trust the report of one of them over yours any day.

To them it isn't a story, or a poll, or a vote in congress.  Its not about control of the house and the whitehouse.

It's a war.  It may cost them an arm or a leg or their life.  They deserve to be supported.

The American people, thanks to people like you, have forgotten what it means to fight a war, and what it means to the people fighting it.

But that's just my opinion, right?  I am sure you would dismiss me as a mindless neocon for daring to disagree.

Too bad, I have free speech too.  So here is mine:

Jerk!

More at:  Sister Toldjah, Wizbang, Instapundit, Riehl World, Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Little Green Footballs, NewsBusters.org, Andrew Olmsted dot com, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog  BLACKFIVE:  Hot Air, QandO, Brutally Honest, Redstate and Powerline

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