Milblogs v Stanford

A couple days ago, I blasted this prof for being clueless...probably because he teaches at Stanford.

Now,I was only NG, and the only war experience I had was two revolutions when I was a missionary, so that doesn't count...


And I'm sure the NYTimes, in it's wisdom, won't print my letter pointing out that the problem was that elites are too hoity toity to get their hands dirty by joining the service and that too many look down on those of us who do...

However, in this day of blogs, you don't need to be filtered out by the hoity toity...so the Milblogs are blasting him

Here is Blackfive (paratrooper of love):

Mercenary Army Or Pompous Academia?

This NY Times op-ed is really another indicator of academia's distance from main-stream American society.

(the rest is unprintable).

Here is Citizen Smash (previous name:Lt Smash when he blogged from the front lines):

In a nutshell, Kennedy is calling for a return of the draft or some other form of compulsary national service. This, according to him, would help to "ensure that the civilian and military sectors do not become dangerously separate spheres."

I've got a better idea for Mr. Kennedy: climb down from your Ivory Tower in Stanford and go and meet some real citizen-warriors. And while you're at it, you might want to apologize for calling us "Hessians." You might find, Professor that we're not a bunch of ignorant thugs.

And some of us even know a thing or two about American history.

And here is Grayhawk of the Mudville Gazette...

All of these blogs have discussions after them.

But the best link is from this Navy Seal:

I can't think of a single point in history where our
forces were of the
correct size, the correct composition, correctly
deployed, and
appropriately trained all at the same time. Pick a
war, any war. (For
that matter, pick any period of peace.) Then dig up as
many official and
unofficial historical documents, reports,
reconstructions, and
commentaries as you can. For every unbiased account
you uncover, you'll
find three commentaries by revisionist historians who
cannot wait to
tell you how badly the U.S. military bungled things.
To hear the
naysayers tell it, we could take lessons in
organization and leadership
from the Keystone Cops.

We really only have one defense against this sort of
mudslinging.
Success.....

I'd like to close with an invitation to those
journalists, analysts,
experts, and politicians who sit up at night dreaming
up new ways to
criticize our armed forces. The next time you see a
man or woman in
uniform, stop for ten seconds and reflect upon how
much you owe that
person, and his or her fellow Sailors, Marines,
Soldiers, and Airmen.

Then say, "Thank you." I'm betting you won't even have
to explain the
reason. Our Service members are not blind or stupid.
They know what
they're risking. They know what they're sacrificing.
They've weighed
their wants, their needs, and their personal safety
against the needs of
their nation, and made the decision to serve. They
know that they
deserve our gratitude, even if they rarely receive it.

Two words -- that's all I ask. "Thank you." If that's
too hard, if you
can't bring yourself to acknowledge the dedication,
sincerity and
sacrifice of your defenders, then I have a backup plan
for you. Put on
a uniform and show us how to do it right.