Daily Kos: Arkin Was Right, The Military Owes Us
Charles Johnson
Sun Feb 4, 2007 at 8:07 am PST • Views: 440
The mask is off at the Daily Kos, and the Kidz are cheering on William Arkin for his slam at the military: Daily Kos: Arkin Was Right - We Do Have a Mercenary Army and They Do Owe Us! (Hat tip: Killgore Trout.)
All hell has broken loose on the right wing Milblogs concerning an article William Arkin wrote at the Washington Post. In this article, Arkin dared to cross the line and say that the Military is out of line when it criticizes the American Public for being against the war. The military’s place is to do the bidding of the United States citizenry .. period! It is not for them to criticize the American population for deciding they no longer want to fund a war.
This, of course, is a point I have brought up many times and the Milblogs when crazy then. You, the military, are the servants of the people. That is what you signed up for. We send you to war and we bring you home. We tell you when to wake up and when to go to bed. If you do not like that, GET OUT. But, that is the life you chose.
The next thing the milblog right wingers were upset about was when Arkin called our Military a mercenary force. Well, guess what, it is!! To get people to fight this war we have had to add all sorts of additional benefits, bonuses, insurance etc. The only way to get people to go was to pay them a lot more - the definition of a mercenary. Also, if you count the 100,000 or so “contractors” over there, that is even more evidence of a mercenary force. I called it at this post last year.
If the military is going to “take on” the American public by saying we have no right to change how we want to deploy them then they have joined the fight. I have said all along, and in the book, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War the idea that the American military has lost contact with the United States Citizens has been proven. They have. Arkin called it right!
Frank says: