By Patrick Appel
A reader writes:
I don't buy the idea that this video is un-criticizable amongst liberals or those like myself, conservatives who support Obama. Though it made me misty to watch the video and appreciative of this man's sacrifice, the argument that those serving under the premise of a mistake are thereby blamed for committing a mistake does not hold water.
67 years ago today, the massive destruction that the Japanese Zero Fighters were able to inflict was largely attributable to a military decision to ignore certain intelligence and to group battleships side-by-side to prevent sabotage. This was obviously a mistake but absolutely no sane person confuses this mistake with the unbelievable heroism & sacrifice of those civilians and soldiers who fought and died that day to do their best against the attack. I think this video is illustrative of the main issue with the GOP when it comes to national security. Arguing that the idea of going to war in Iraq is wrong does not make those soldiers employed by those mistake-makers wrong; yet, the GOP uses it as a tool and insults the intelligence of men & women in uniform by trying so hard to convince us that we're insulting the troops by trying our idealistic best to prevent the loss of their lives. Heroism on the battlefield is independent of the rationale of going to war.