John McCain: “patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting”
At least according to Michelle Malkin, noted right-wing blogger.
Heh, this is fun, actually. Got this off C&L, and if Malkin’s site allowed comments, I’d join what would likely be a host of other commenters there. But, her site allows trackbacks, so let’s see if this functionally does the same thing.
First, there’s “Obama: Soldier deaths = “Wasted” lives” (Feb. 12) in which Malkin has a quote from Barack Obama saying that soldiers’ lives were wasted. Then she “introduces” Obama to a number of fallen soldiers, by way of personal stories about them and how they were willing to lay down their lives for their country. Obviously this misses the point, because their willingness to sacrifice their lives for their country has deep, profound meaning for them, but doesn’t mean that the people in charge of putting them in combat used their dedication in a meaningful way. And Obama apologized for the comment the next day, which is a shame. Even Republicans are saying that dollars, time, and effort are wasted over there, but since everybody’s using the “support our troops” club, it’s not safe to say that about soldiers’ lives, I suppose.
She ends with:
I could go on, but it would be a waste of breath trying to get Sen. Obama to acknowledge the existence of countless soldiers and their families who reject his patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting view of all American troops as dupes/victims who have squandered their lives.
And then, Feb 28, McCain says on Letterman: “Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be…we’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.” Oops! Somehow her Feb 28 post neglected to call McCain patronizing, infantilizing, and insulting, but I’ve done you the service of connecting those dots. Actually, I don’t know what her opinion of McCain is, but she calls him “The Maaaverick”, which sounds dismissive enough that I expect she’ll be able to say he’s not a “real” conservative before long.
Though I don’t know what the problem is in the first place, really. Soldiers are meant to follow orders. I wish I could find her opinion on soldiers speaking out against the war, but I can’t find the right search-
Ohhh, wait, of course I can. Watada.
No, [the left’s] idea of a military hero is Army Lt. Ehren Watada. Did Watada take a bullet for his comrades? Rescue innocent civilians from insurgent forces? Throw himself on a grenade? Ambush a terrorist sniper nest? No.
Watada’s the soldier who went on trial this week for defying orders to be deployed to Iraq — after volunteering for duty. For those deficient in English, here’s the meaning of volunteer: “To perform or offer to perform a service of one’s own free will.” Hundreds of anti-war groupies, including actor Sean Penn, showed up to cheer Watada.
So, yeah, soldiers who volunteer are supposed to do what they’re told, up to and including jumping on a live grenade. So what’s wrong with saying their lives are wasted? Soldiers die, it’s an integral part of war. If a soldier is ordered to go on a suicide mission so that so many more lives can be saved–ergh, well, that’s a tricky moral area, but you know it’s not on par with a soldier who dies in a war built on lies and misdirection. It’s not about the soldier being stupid or naive or a dupe. The soldier is doing his Malkin-Approved™ job. It’s about the people who got him killed, getting him killed for no good reason.
Update: ah, here it is, sorta: “Wasted,” Pt. II. She calls it “McCain’s Obama impersonation,” so that’s kinda condemning, I suppose. She’s away at (or recently back from, I dunno) CPAC, so I guess she didn’t have time to introduce McCain to all the soldiers he patronized, infantilized, and insulted.
