Citizen Soldier

This is in response to Llew's last point on the Murtha thread. It actually served to highlight a topic that has been in mind lately that I thought we could discuss.

Llewcifer said...

I didn't realize being a Retired Reserve Colonel inoculated you against being wrong. Hope I get as free a pass when I get on the stump...

The inoculation seems only to work if you are against the war just as troops in Iraq who oppose our actions are proof positive to the Left that the entire military wants out. At least that was the implied sentiment, flawed as it is, of a leftist blogger I recently had some interaction with. She also insinuated in another post that as a military wife she wasn't a civilian. Made me chuckle inside.

If the Left wants to go to some sort of "Robert Heinlein" standard for who gets to vote, hold office or even have a say in this country then fine . And while most of here would be covered, I think I should be exact and state that it doesn't include military wives. Statistics have repeatedly shown the military votes to the Right of the spectrum so such a method of determining who is a "citizen" would help the conservative movement unquestionably

Now I am obviously not truly for such a system as there are many other ways in which people contribute. For instance the wealthiest of Americans who foot the tax bill should certainly get a say. But to get back on topic, the tactics of the Left to herald anyone in the military who agrees with them as some sort of expert is both selective and nonsensical. Selective in that they will hardly consider the views of the "experts" on the Right and I also think it is silly for someone who never wore the cloth (Pelosi for example) to make the judgment that Murtha's point of view is the best because he did serve at one time. Leaves me to question that if she never served, then how does she know his is a good opinion? By her standards she isn't worthy to make such judgments. Silly civilians.

Llew, why don't you start by running against Murtha? I can think of no better dichotomy.

This article is also featured on the Political Teen.