Jim Edmunds gets a fat chunk of the op-ed page to whine about what nasty people these peaceniks really are.
Near as I can figure, he's referring to Randal's column here as the trigger for his irritation, but it has little to do with the events he recounts.
I wouldn't be surprised if his description of his experience is accurate as far as it goes. Many, many people saw what was coming with Bush's adventure in Iraq, and were (and remain) very angry about it. Most people haven't much experience in expressing themselves with force, and have to be given some benefit of the doubt if they don't handle it with perfect aplomb. That they refused to allow a PR flak to tell them how to express themselves about this impending disaster is no surprise. You're a flak, you get yelled at, that's your job, Jim.
And let's not neglect that the peaceniks were absolutely on the money about what was happening and how it would turn out.
The tell comes in Edmunds' final graph, pulling out the old canard that if you're anti-war, you're anti-veteran. This is desperate rhetoric that neatly kneecaps his credibility. The reader will be forgiven for inferring that Edmunds still speaks for Rick Renzi, as I have little doubt that our Congresscritter would make much the same speech.
For readers of the Daily Courier in Prescott, Arizona. Comment and discuss. Be nice, now.
Muggs archive
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
5 comments:
I encourage you to share your own views and experience with me and other readers. How you do that matters, and I'm committed to maintaining a place where readers and commenters can feel safe from adolescent BS. So here's the deal:
There are two kinds of anonymous comments: those by people who have a genuine fear of revenge from the dark side, and those from darksiders just hiding to avoid accountability. You may post comments anonymously, but I reserve the right to treat anonymous comments as found items that belong to me and do with them as I see fit.
If, on the other hand, you're willing to stand by your convictions and post under your own name or a regular handle, your comments belong to you, and I'll edit them only on egregious violations of respect for others.
If this doesn't work for you, I'm sure you'll be happier somewhere else.
Dude if you can get any of the stay the course crowd to admit that the "peaceniks"were on the money you should get a cookie .my problem with this is the headline ...did they beat anyone .. ?insult their patriotisim? come on from what I can see there were no cops involved the headline seems to infer violence of some kind
ReplyDeleteGood point. Kinda makes me think about my personal definition of 'peaceful.' Does it mean 'perfectly ordered,' does it mean 'without violence,' or is it somewhere between? The use of 'not so peaceful' will mean different things to different readers. It's code, in another words, aimed at your chosen audience. And let's not forget that the headline was more than likely written by one of our Courier editors.
ReplyDeleteanyone look at the responses to randal's piece? sheesh. it's dispiriting to run into the same stupid stuff -- conflating the war in Iraq with the so-called "war on terrorism" (< pet peeve> where is the declaration of war?< /pet peeve>), impugning the patriotism of anyone who disagrees, even (i love this!) a 21st century american restating of the old bolshevik slogan: the ends justify the means.
ReplyDeleteOk, as a vet, I've got to say this "you must support the war or you don't support our troops BS" is annoying.
ReplyDeleteIt allows our government to holds our troops hostage to their policies. You could simply invade a country you feel you'd like to invade for personal reasons and then if anyone complains, they aren't supporting our troops.
Which is annoying.
Go to Iraq, pull a few missions, get very,very bored, then freaked out, sweat a great deal in Kevlar, get mind-games for life, lose some of you body's functionality, become consumed with guilt and then tell me you're at war, you "I'm sorry I can't make it to drill" half-stepping ex-Texas Air Guard weenie.
Still a little angry about a few things,as you can tell.
know what you mean coyote ..am a vet whos has been sniped at by more that one chickenhawk over this middle east BS ..what I dont understand is the the vets who buy into the lies ..
ReplyDelete