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My apologies for this being on the front page two times, blogger had some technical issues earlier.
[UPDATE BELOW] Arkins response to our responses.
William Arkin, yet another hack that poses as a writer for The Washington Post, cannot handle the fact that our soldiers now have the ability to speak out publicly. They ARE Americans you stupid son of a bitch.
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.
What is the truth that Billy the Hack cannot handle? Click the video below.
It seems our soldiers telling the truth bothers William Arkin. In fact it bothered him SO much he actually LIED when he says:
Sure it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail, but even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy. We just don't see very man "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.
The New York Times, days ago, already showed that Joshua Sparling WAS spit at, so Mr. Arkin, is not only a hack, but a liar as well.
There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq. Mr. Sparling spoke at a smaller rally held earlier in the day at the United States Navy Memorial, and voiced his support for the administration’s policies in Iraq.
Later, as antiwar protesters passed where he and his group were standing, words were exchanged and one of the antiwar protestors spit at the ground near Mr. Sparling; he spit back.
Capitol police made the antiwar protestors walk farther away from the counterprotesters.
“These are not Americans as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Sparling said.
Another counterprotester, Larry Stark, 71, a retired Navy officer who fought in Vietnam for five years and was a prisoner of war, said, “We never lost a battle in Vietnam but we lost the war, and the same is going to be true in Iraq if these protesters have their way.”
The protesters on Saturday were undermining troop morale, Mr. Stark said, and increasing the likelihood of a premature withdrawal.
“It’s like we never learn from the past,” he said.
A soldier that not only has fought for our country but lost a leg in doing so.
Then we have this little tidbit from the hack:
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.
So.....even those that wear a uniform, like there is some doubt that our soldiers should be allowed to tell the American people the TRUTH?????
See, what Arkin cannot handle is the fact that the soldiers have a voice, that bloggers that embed actually report better than the folks at Wapo and others in the MSM, because the bloggers have no qualms about leaving the Green Zone and actually doing some actual REPORTING instead of relying on stringers and reporting propagnada like the AP does, that some news channels actually WANT to hear what the soldiers have to say and will publish it.... what Arkin cannot handle is that the American people might just hear some truths, instead of the political drivel that most of them try to shove down our throats.
Too bad.
Friday's NBC Nightly News included a story from my colleague and friend Richard Engel, who was embedded with an active duty Army infantry battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington.
Engel relayed how "troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they've been fighting for."
First up was 21 year old junior enlisted man Tyler Johnson, whom Engel said was frustrated about war skepticism and thinks that critics "should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing."
"You may support or say we support the troops, but, so you're not supporting what they do, what they're here sweating for, what we bleed for, what we die for. It just don't make sense to me," Johnson said.
Next up was Staff Sergeant Manuel Sahagun, who is on his second tour in Iraq. He complained that "one thing I don't like is when people back home say they support the troops, but they don't support the war. If they're going to support us, support us all the way."
Next was Specialist Peter Manna: "If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything that we've done here is all in vain," he said.
What I find amusing about this bit is that the Left is constantly saying, If you think we should be in Iraq fighting, go fight it.....well the soldiers just turned it around on the Left...if you want to criticize our actions in Iraq.....GO LEARN OF WHICH YOU SPEAK FIRST.
The soldiers are right. How do you criticize something you have no clue about....oh yeah, I forgot...papers like Wapo tell you, therefore it all must be true and you know all you need to, huh?
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.
Sure it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail, but even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy. We just don't see very man "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.
We already showed that Arkin, out and out LIED here, because our brave men and women ARE being spit at, figuratively, from people like William Arkin and LITERALLY at the anti-war protest.
Where has the American people "indulged" our military? Is this no good HACK suggesting that Abu Ghraib and Haditha were NOT a case of bad apples? Yes he is.... because THIS next line makes it clear what he and his little friends on the left think about our military:
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.
Black Five has the best response to that bit of drivel I have seen yet today,titled "A hearty F*** You to William Arkin":
I was stunned by the incredible amount of disgusting, deranged, disrespectful drivel the wanker was able to cobble together in one hearty F U to the troops. Well Mr. Arkin in true blogospheric fashion F U right back atcha'.
I really like Uncle Jimbo, go read his full piece.
The reason that opinions like this are important is because it shows us exactly what the left thinks of our military....the same military that fights for HIS and our rights to be able to express our opinions freely...even when it comes from a hack that doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, like William Arkin.
A few reactions from around the blogosphere can be found here at memeorandum, although I am going to show a few of there here as well as a few comments from the Wapo comment section.
Please notice that not many on the left are commenting as of yet. BUT to give credit where it is due, the few that ARE commenting are also finding Mr. Arkins comments offensive. Now, normally I would say it is because the left doesn't WANT people to know that Arkin's opinions echo their own, but in this case, with a few notable exceptions, even some on the left understand this man is a hack.
From Fuzzilicious Thinking:
"This is one of the saddest pieces of tripe I've encountered in a while. Soldiers ARE American people, and they certainly have every right to criticize their peers and the people they are fighting to protect. By your standard, however, it would seem they are nothing more than mercenaries and ought to just shut up and do what they are told... "
From OpFor:
And with that piece, every frustration that I've felt over America's new fifith column, every insult that smug anti-war pundits have hurled at the silent stoics in our armed forces, all the false pity, all the overused meaningless cliches ("we support the troops but not the war") that we in the military have endured, every bit of anger that I've suppressed in the name of good manners and honorable debate, reaches a fist-clenching apex.
This goes beyond mere opposition to the war. It represents the official demotion of the US military, from heroic to evil. Uneducated rapists and baby killers, mercenaries for hire. Soldiers were once the invincible GI, now they are war criminals. How far we've fallen, how pathetic we've become. As a society. As individuals. As human beings.
I can't fight this type of ignorance. I just can't. As much as I'd like to, I can't grab Arkin by the ear, and show him one of our squadron chefs, a young airman who works on her masters when she's not cooking meals for our crews. I can't take him to my friend Ryan's grave, a college graduate killed by an IED in Baghdad, who opted to honor his obligations as an enlisted man instead of pursuing a more lucrative line of work. Or introduce him to the security forces airman who walks long patrols through the winter snow, reciting the epics of Homer to himself so that he'll be prepared for his Classics exam. These people aren't the exception, they are the standard.
If there is a war that's unwinnable, it's the war on this type of horrid ignorance. The type of uniformed, intellectually lazy thinking that can only exist in the sheltered bubble of cocktail parties and classrooms. Arkin is a gazer. A man forever condemned to peering out the window into the real world, watching the exertions of men better than himself. And yet he fancies himself the educated one. Any logical human being would trade career in journalism for the expertise gained by serving a mere one month in the box, yet this slime fancies his opinion so informed, so expert, so utterly irrefutable that even the very soldiers who are fighting this war are shamefully ignorant for daring to challenge his infallibility.
From Captain's Quarters:
Arkin finishes by suggesting that America rethink what it owes the troops, so I'll oblige. We owe them our support because they risk their lives to ensure that we retain our freedoms. They don't get paid all that well to do it, either, but they do it because they love our country. I'm fine with them expressing their opinions when reporters stick cameras in their faces and ask for them, even if they don't agree with me. I still respect them for what they do, which apparently is the difference between Arkin and myself.
From Power Line:
Arkin considers it an "ugly" thing when a soldier says that critics of the war "should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing." I think the real ugliness lies much closer to home.
Confederate Yankee suggests Mr. Arkin go embed with our soldiers in Iraq: HEH
If recent dispatches from elsewhere in the blogosphere may be a worthy guide, I'd suggest that he partake of the opportunity shared by bloggers such as Bill Ardalino, Bill Roggio, Michelle Malkin, Bryan Preston, and of course, Michael Yon. Perhaps what would go the furthest in changing his opinion of our soldier is a simple, short embed with our military in Iraq.
From Andrew Olmstead.com:
And Arkin closes it out by explaining that our soldiers are really mercenaries. That really says it all, doesn't it. Soldiers aren't going to Iraq because they are patriotic or because they think that some people have an obligation to serve. No, we're just mercenaries, and apparently vastly overcompensated mercenaries at that. Mr. Arkin is fortunate he doubtless lives far from any of those 'mercenaries,' because I can assure him that were I to meet him on the street, I'd beat the man to within an inch of his life for the insults he's offered me and my fellow soldiers. But, I'm sure Arkin lives somewhere soldiers cannot afford to live, and he is well-insulated from ever actually having to meet any of the soldiers he apparently delights in running down.
From Blue Crab Boulevard, who has a son in the military in Iraq:
Blackfive (Uncle Jimbo writing) brought this one to my attention. It seems William Arkin of the Washington Post's Early Warning blog took a shot at the troops who spoke out in the NBC video report I posted yesterday. Uncle Jimbo does a very, very thorough job of dismantling Arkin. I have agreed with some things Arkin wrote in the past, but here he is grossly out of line. And he is taking a lot - a real lot - of heat in his comment section for it. I will not go off on Arkin, others have already done so. But I will point you instead to the post my son sent me a few days ago and let you read the difference between Arkin's desire to stifle the troops valid opinions and my son's protest against a hateful website, done in a calm and logical manner. And then his dismissal of those who do not support the troops, with a promise that he and his fellow soldiers would, nonetheless, continue to defend the rights of those people to express their opinions.Who's the better person? You figure it out.
My answer.... it isn't even a question who is the better person... Your son is a person, William Arkin is a piece of shit that doesn't qualify as "human" and isn't good enough to wipe your sons ass.
From the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler:
How the fuck do you expect them to feel, you clusterfucked cue ball, when all they ever hear in the news is bad news, and every single accomplishment of theirs is studiously, deliberately, with malice aforethought ignored? How the fuck do you expect them to feel when every single minute of coverage from the MSM differs from al-Jazeera only in not being in Arabic? How do you expect them to feel when the MSM will report, breathlessly at great length about a bunch of freezing moonbats gathering to display their papier mache puppets while completely ignoring the voices of millions of Americans who support our fighting men and women in everything they do?
You must be really proud of yourself, Abu Musab al-Arkin. No wonder the fake tapes from Osama are fewer and further between. They don’t NEED to disseminate their own propaganda with all of you useless civilian collaborators doing all of the heavy lifting for them.
From Transterrestrial Musings:
Arguably, there were, and are, some people who joined up to get a job and an education. But I think that ended on September 10th. The men and women in the armed forces now are largely there because they think they have an important job to do, and many of them could be making a lot more money stateside, with a lot less risk to life and limb, given the booming economy and low unemployment rate. If I were in the service, I'd be as furious, and perhaps more furious than Uncle Jimbo. I might even drop the F-bomb, too. In fact, I'm not in the service, and I find Arkin's piece beneath contempt.
Hugh Hewitt tells us exactly who Willaim Arkin is, besides a hack that is.
From Hyscience:
Update: A thought occurred to me after posting; if William Arkin's prejudices against the military are representative of the majority of the MSM, and likely they are, then no wonder the MSM bias of the Iraq coverage makes it so difficult for us to hear about the good things that are going on in Iraq.
Michelle Malkin thinks Arkin must be auditioning for the Daily Kos diarist spot.
Riehl World View:
Perhaps emboldened by so many Democrats and some Republicans now betraying their very own earlier votes as they muster political opposition to victory in Iraq, clearly the MSM has decided to take the mask off of their own opposition to the Iraq War.
If we thought coverage has been biased up until now, buckle up - it's going to get worse.
Flopping Aces:
Most of my regulars know I try to keep away from cussing on this blog since it really doesn't bring anything to the debate. I mean we have all seen the KOS kiddies cuss away, thinking they are making a bigger point but in the end they just look ignorant. Well, after getting home from work tonight and reading about the WaPo writer....
[...]
All I have to say is FUCK YOU! You little weasel piece of dogshit.
Ok, I'm sorry....there are some people in this world who just deserve it so.
Hang Right Politics:
You know, the title of his screed tells the arrogance of the weasel - he’s no man, in my estimation - who wrote it: “The Troops Also Need to Support the American People.” He doesn’t seem to think that the troops already do, every single day that they endure in the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and everywhere else they are to fight against the scum who want to see people like this weasel Arkin beheaded because he’s a Westerner. They endure hardships so we don’t have to. And all he does, in return, is to spit and take a dump on the work they do and on their dignity.Hot Air has video of this scum trying to justify himself and his idiocy.
All I can say is that Arkin’s words are nothing but diarrhea of the soul. I repeat: diarrhea of the soul - the kind that is never cured with a dose of Imodium. Rush talks about “diarrhea of the mouth.” I think the source is much deeper than that, because, as it is said in the Gospels, “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” You can guess what this Arkin guy is made of.
Go to the article itself and scroll to the comments. Seems Mr. Arkin might need a few bodyguards when he decides to show his face in public.
To contact the editors of Wapo:
The Washington Post
1150 15 St. NW
Washington, DC 20071
and by e-mail at:
letters@washpost.com
Willaim Arkins email:
warkin@igc.org
Email them, let them know what you think of this piece of crap......oh, and his article too.
All of this because the left cannot stand that NBC gave voice through the MSM to our soldiers.
Mr. Arkin, my comment to you: May you rot in hell.
Previous:
A Window Into The Soul of the Left .
[UPDATE] Arkin admits he shouldn't have called the soldiers mercenaries..... ya think???????????????? Then he tries to backtrack a bit..... good luck THERE. (In the sick twisted world he lives in, in his head,we "misunderstood" what he wrote.)
Get this...he names his new piece of garbage, "The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out"....ummmmmmm, wasn't it HIS intolerance for our troops speaking out, HIS arrogance?
Kettle...meet....pot.
EAT SHIT, BARK AT THE MOON AND DIE MR. ARKIN.
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