Posted on 01/28/2006 9:37:18 AM PST by .cnI redruM
I see that my fellow Stein, fellow journalist, and fellow troublemaker Joel Stein is at it again. He has written a piece for the L.A. Times in which he says he does not support the troops in Iraq. He mocks those who sport yellow ribbons, as many do, but he goes much further. He says the American soldier in Iraq is largely responsible for the war and for his own risks, injuries, and death. He does not like the war in Iraq, and he says if American soldiers would simply refuse to go fight or would quit and come home, the war would be over. If they don't do that, he does not support them and it's their own fault if they die. (This is my understanding of his piece. I may be wrong and I hope I am.)
So, here is another Stein's view:
The most heroic, ethically courageous, morally resolute men and women in the world today are the Americans, British, and other forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are fighting the most evil men and women currently on the world scene. The American Army soldier, Marine, Navy sailor, Air Force warrior, and Coast Guardsman fighting in Ramadi or Mosul is fighting men and women who kill children and old people for sport. The men and women of the United States military are fighting the remnants of a regime so evil that it pioneered the use of torture against children -- just for the amusement of Saddam and his family. The men and women whom Joel despises rid the world of a dictator so twisted and murderous that he openly admired Stalin and Hitler and sought to match their level of atrocities. The men and women who wear the uniform fought, bled, and died to rid the world of the most dangerous man on the planet in the most flammable place on the planet. They died to save a slave people from the genocidal control of a mad killer who thought nothing of gassing his own people, of wiping out entire regions, of setting up special rape rooms to allow his henchmen and his sons to rape women at will, who amused himself by pouring gasoline down the throats of totally innocent people and setting them on fire.
Counting his war against Iran and the murders of his own people, Saddam killed millions. He tortured many thousands more. Now his minions and holdouts are doing the same with bombs and sniper rifles to stop progress towards a humane society and to turn back the clock to a Hitlerite Iraq, despite the clear truth that 99 percent of the Iraqis want a free, lawful, democratic Iraq. (I guess Joel Stein thinks somehow it's those poor saps' fault, too.)
The man from Iowa or South Carolina, the woman from Mississippi or Idaho or Oregon or New York or California or Washington, D.C. or anywhere in America who leaves the comfort of home to fight against an evil as monstrous as what did happen and what is happening in Iraq are great warriors. But they are something more. They are saints in body armor, men and women of staggering moral virtue in a time and place when those words mean very little in the modern world. Their lives have the most meaning of any lives being lived on this earth right this moment.
Do I support men and women who are fighting Nazis who call themselves insurgents or Islamic militants? Do I support men and women who offer up their lives to fight the very same terrorists who killed three thousand totally guiltless Americans on 9/11? Do I support the troops who have more moral decency in their toes than I do or anyone I know does in our whole bodies? I support them, pray for them, am humbled just to be on the same planet with them. With every morning I wake up, every meal I eat, every walk I take in freedom, every night I sleep in peace, I ask God to look after the men and women who guard the ramparts of this blessed island of peace and decency called America. Without them, we would be nothing. Without them, Joel Stein would have his head sawed off. Saints in armor is what I call them and what they are. They are God's gifts to a wayward world.
No eternal vigilance is the price we pay for freedom. Vigilance against people like joel stein.
Amen. And God bless our troops.
...and he says if American soldiers would simply refuse to go fight or would quit and come home, the war would be over.
There's another way to end the war. Congress could cut off the funding for it. Why do the libs never mention this? Maybe because they don't have the guts to try it?
Stein is a parasite.
I suppose the Joel Stein's are the price we have to pay to live in the freest country in the world, but we don't have to embrace his beliefs. Just as he is free to voice his opinion, I am free to call him an idiot for saying it.
There are always weevils in the cotton and RATs in the corn crib. A certain level is normal but when the vermin get out of hand you've got to deal with them.
BEN STEIN is my a good guy.
Joel Stein evidently lacks a conscience to tell him the difference between right and wrong. Or, more likely, he has managed to put his conscience to sleep by ignoring it or violating it for many years. Everyone has a conscience, but it's possible to sink yourself so deeply into evil habits that you can no longer hear it.
It's hard to make someone like that understand the perversity and wickedness of his ways. But perhaps we can make the LA Times understand it. The LA Times is a business operation. It needs subscribers and advertisers. It's not doing very well lately.
You got it.
Joel Stein should brush up on his law. Specifically, Title 18 of the United States Code:
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115 > § 2381 Prev | Next
§ 2381. Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002381----000-.html
It's about time the Attorney General empaneled a Federal Grand Jury in order to submit information on alleged tratiors like Mr. Stein, and certain others whose names are well known. If the Grand Jury returns a no bill, game over. But if they indict, then he should prosecute.
IMHO Mr. Stein's comments don't warrant the maximum penalty under the statute; the minimum should suffice.
What a wonderful, unique way to view our men and women in uniform!
That's precisely true. If no one buys the LA Times, no one reads Joel Stein. At least no one that Joel Stein can reach outside of his trolladytic echo chamber.
bump
He's only saying what them left truly feels.
I suppose the reason they don't try and force Congress to cut the funding is that too many of the Senators in their captive party are supportive of the war ie: Mrs Bill Clinton. To force the issue would fracture their already splintered party perhaps for good, guaranteeing the Repubs keep power for at least the forseeable future without too much of a fight. One knock against libnut pols is that they bend with the wind to whichever side of the political issue is most popular at the time. If their force caused Mrs Clinton to change her support for the war(we know it's BS anyway) that would make too many independant thinking american voters say, "looky there, another flip flopper for the dems". No, they are dumb, but not THAT dumb.
John Stuart Hill
"Saints in Armor" - a very fine definition of our precious military. Thank you, Ben Stein!
What an awesome article! I just sent the link to it from the American Spectator to my brother whose son flies Apache Longbows in Afghanistan and some friends whose daughter is an Army Intelligence office with a Stryker brigade in Iraq.
And has felt for decades. The revolting sense of personal entitlement is what makes me want to puke. The left habitually attracts, breeds and champions parasites.
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