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Columnist: I Don't Support the Troops
newsmax.com ^ | Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006 10:46 p.m. EST

Posted on 01/25/2006 8:14:17 PM PST by InvisibleChurch

A Los Angeles Times columnist has precipitated a firestorm of outrage by proclaiming that he doesn't support the troops serving in Iraq because they've become "a fighting tool of American imperialism."

On Tuesday, LA Times columnist Joel Stein began his screed with the words: "I DON'T SUPPORT our troops . . .

"Being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken . . . It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward."

Stein argues that the troops knew what they were getting into when they joined up, so they don't deserve any special sympathy.

"When you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam. . . . "

Stein says that it's the troops themselves - and not the civilian leadership back home - who bear the responsibility for the "immorality" of the war.

"The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying."

Stein says that he wouldn't go so far as to advocate spitting on returning Iraq war vets, but adds, "we shouldn't be celebrating people for doing something we don't think was a good idea."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: dork; joelstein
dork
1 posted on 01/25/2006 8:14:20 PM PST by InvisibleChurch
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To: InvisibleChurch

First, Stein is a humorist (he's on a lot of VH1 shows), and probably shouldn't be taken seriously. And at least he's honest. I'd prefer that over the typical "This war is a murderous and worthless effort. Oh, but don't get me wrong, I support the troops."


2 posted on 01/25/2006 8:18:42 PM PST by Tim Long (I spit in the face of people who don't want to be cool.)
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To: InvisibleChurch

This guy is definitely part of the enemy within.


3 posted on 01/25/2006 8:18:59 PM PST by WyCoKsRepublican
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To: InvisibleChurch

Here's how you can make your disgust known:
thejoelstein@yahoo.com

The editor of the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Dean Baquet's
email address is: dean.baquet@latimes.com
And his phone number is (213) 237-7001


4 posted on 01/25/2006 8:19:11 PM PST by Theresawithanh (Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.)
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To: InvisibleChurch
Forgive me but I really hate these little people it is hard no to. most of us do not have a bully pulpit to cast lies from like them and to use that cheap fish wrap hope it goes out of business newspaper!
5 posted on 01/25/2006 8:19:44 PM PST by Steveone (Liberalism is a brain tumor!)
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To: InvisibleChurch
Wow a liberal that thinks that someone should take responsibility for their action...

The thinking is warped and totaly off-base but at least he is trying...
6 posted on 01/25/2006 8:20:30 PM PST by JoeTN
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To: InvisibleChurch
Wow a liberal that thinks that someone should take responsibility for their action...

The thinking is warped and totaly off-base but at least he is trying...
7 posted on 01/25/2006 8:21:38 PM PST by JoeTN
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To: InvisibleChurch
dork

Bears repeating!

Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam. . . . "

Ugh!! Typical leftist bs. who has no clue of the truth...In Kosovo it was the terrorists we were helping...who have been staging a landgrab of Serbian terrirtory for centuries...and finally got us to do it for them by screaming "ethnic cleansing" when in fact it was the albanians who have cleansed Kosovo of her Sebian and Roma population...and now they're the biggest drug dealing, human trafficking criminals in europe.

8 posted on 01/25/2006 8:23:01 PM PST by blinachka (Vechnaya Pamyat Daddy... xoxo)
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To: InvisibleChurch

Did you expect him to?

Our troops are killing hs allies and friends each day.

This, to use the term very, very loosely,"man is nothing but a parasite. He lives hers and enjoys a life of ease because of the blood shed by troops he despises, from the Revolutionary War until this point in time.

If we were anything like our forefathers, this parasite would at the very least find himself on a ship or airplane to where his friends are and where his heart is.


9 posted on 01/25/2006 8:27:16 PM PST by sport
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To: InvisibleChurch
Colummunist: I Don't Support the Troops
10 posted on 01/25/2006 8:28:00 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Happy New Year!)
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To: InvisibleChurch

"He's a fish monger."


11 posted on 01/25/2006 8:28:15 PM PST by onedoug
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To: Tim Long
First, Stein is a humorist

I take it you use that term loosely.

Lileks' take on this

12 posted on 01/25/2006 8:33:47 PM PST by lesser_satan
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To: Steveone
Forgive me but I really hate these little people it is hard no to. most of us do not have a bully pulpit to cast lies from like them and to use that cheap fish wrap hope it goes out of business newspaper!

Hugh Hewitt had him on his show Tues and Joel said he probably makes 3x what a $25K/annual soldier makes for writing one column a week! Makes one's blood boil, the military are protecting this a$$hole so he can slander the military.

13 posted on 01/25/2006 8:35:02 PM PST by p23185 (Why isn't attempting to take down a sitting Pres & his Admin considered Sedition?)
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To: onedoug

His mother was a hamster, and his father smelled of elderberries.


14 posted on 01/25/2006 8:36:38 PM PST by lesser_satan
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To: InvisibleChurch

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,3682678.column

The column..He is disgusting.


15 posted on 01/25/2006 8:45:25 PM PST by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)
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To: InvisibleChurch

"So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse"




I wonder how he feels about the soldiers that signed up and went on to Germany to release the Holocaust prisoners from the concentration camps?

People like this idiot make me ill.


16 posted on 01/25/2006 8:47:11 PM PST by Mears (The Killer Queen-caviar and cigarettes.)
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To: lesser_satan
His mother was a hamster, and his father smelled of elderberries.

I suggest that we f@rt in his general direction!

17 posted on 01/25/2006 8:51:32 PM PST by lightman (The Office of the Keys should be exercised as some ministry needs to be exorcised.)
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To: lightman
I suggest that we f@rt in his general direction!

Do you think he'd even notice, considering the toxic crap that comes out of his mouth?
18 posted on 01/25/2006 9:03:20 PM PST by LostInBayport (Massachusetts liberals refuse to admit we exist...we are the 37% of MA voters who voted for GWB)
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To: InvisibleChurch

In one interview (With Hewitt), he claimed of not having any friends or family members in the armed services, then said he has a cousin (with the same name) currently serving in America. 8 hours later, on a Philadelphia station, he claimed, once again, that he did not know anyone in the military. Now he is not giving any more interviews. Smart move, for Stein. That way his "stories" stay straight.


19 posted on 01/25/2006 10:12:22 PM PST by Captainpaintball
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To: InvisibleChurch

At least he's expressing the honest left wing pacifist position...I'm getting tired of hearing the liars professing to be against the war...but still supporting the troops.


20 posted on 01/26/2006 2:01:59 PM PST by Katya (Homo Nosce Te Ipsum)
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