Contempt or Condescension For Those That Serve
I admit that I watch Bill Maher's left wing love fest of a political show sometimes. Like a good car wreck, I look as I channel surf through my 62 HBO options of crap on Friday night as I lay in bed watching TV while not having sex.
Sometimes he has one conservative who is pounded constantly by three leftists. On this night the "right" was represented by Florida Congresswoman Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen.
The rest of the time he has Andrew Sullivan on the show.
Anyway, I saw an exchange last weekend in which Richard Belzer tries to say he admires and loves the troops, but he, not they, knows what is going on in Iraq. Why? Because they are stupid, uneducated kids who couldn't get a job and had no choice but to go into the military. Don't take my word for it. Let's read the video:
Richard Belzer: "Yeah, come on. Our soldiers now are at ..."Ros-Lehtinen: "Are a volunteer force, a volunteer force."
Belzer: "Okay, fine. No one questions the nobility and the honor that these men and woman who are serving and what they're doing. No one questions that. [For the record, I don't believe him. I think he does question all those things. And now, I hear a "Buttmonkey" coming.] But now they're targets, they're not going out. Now they're just protecting each other and they're in the middle of a civil war. So it's really not fair to have these people who volunteered their lives to protect our nation under false pretenses to now be a target ..."
[Loud applause for Belzer]
Ros-Lehtinen: "Ask them. Ask them if it's fair! Wait a minute, wait a minute. My stepson, wait a minute, my stepson ..."
Belzer: "That's bullshit. Ask them! They're not .. they don't read twenty newspapers a day [It probably hasn't occured to Belzer that newspapers may not be the most accurate sources of information on Iraq]. They're under the threat of death every minute. They're not the best people to ask about the war because they're going to die any second."
Ros-Lehtinen: "Wait a minute! You are talking about my stepson, my stepson who just finished last week eight months of duty ..."
Belzer: "God bless your stepson. Doesn't mean he's a brilliant scholar about the war because he's there. And God bless him."
Ros-Lehtinen: "Oh, you are though! You are though? Okay."
Belzer: "Well I have more time, I'm not there. My life is not under threat."
Ros-Lehtinen: "Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad."
Bill Maher: "I think the point he's trying to make is that a 19-year-old who is in that army because he probably couldn't find other employment ..."
Ros-Lehtinen: "He's a college graduate. He's a Marine officer. He volunteered for the Marines."
Belzer: "He's the exception for the rule."
Ros-Lehtinen: "He's not the exception for the rule. I've been there ..."
Belzer: "You think everyone over there is a college graduate? They're 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job ..."
To Maher's credit, after Belzer followed this exchange with an "F" bomb, Maher told him he ws crossing the line and losing him.
Sadly, this is the attitude of the military I see from a large segment of the hard left.
I am not saying that one all who are liberal or against this war have an improper view of the military and the people in it. I am simply talking about those that do, and they are numerous.
There are two kinds of leftists as I see it. Some believe that those in the military are part of a silly, patriotic, unquestioning war mongering fringe. They hold these people in contempt for their uncivilized bruteness and assume the worst of them at all times. Others, like Belzer, have view our brave and sacrificing soldiers as "poor children who don't know any better."
This is called condescension.
They don't see it that way. Why kid ourselves with the Left's "Buttmonkeys."
"Saddam was not a nice guy, but . . . ."
"Sure we don't want another 9/11, but . . . ."
"The people in the military are heroes, but . . . ."
A good friend of mine in my church is shipping out to Iraq this week. He served in Afghanistan already. He is college educated, gainfully employed, older, and has stayed in the reserves despite having a six figure income for several years. He also has run our missions, foreign and domestic, for several years.
A mentally unbalanced war monger? Just another stupid kid who couldn't get a job? Yet another exception to the rule?
You tell me Dick Belzer.
posted by KJ @ 1:53 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Typical Leftist drivel; why give it any notice?
...as I lay in bed watching TV while not having sex.
No wonder you're so cranky :)
I try to help you people...
*running away*
Let's see... who do I want Iraq commentary from, people who are on the front line, have a military understanding, and spend most of their waking hours with the other men and women there, or a cynical New York comic who may or may not have a college education but makes his living cracking jokes?
Let me think about it awhile. I'm gonna go read my copy of "If You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden" in the can.
And how many "jobs" did you create today Mr. Belzer?
Condescension is the normal tactic of the left. As a libertarian, I believe in freedom because I believe that most people, given the chance, are capable individuals who can and will take care of themselves. The left believes that most people are simply helpless products of their surroundings, and that they're unable to do anything for themselves. I hear it in arguments all the time. You can't blame the poor for being poor, they just don't know any better. And should you advocate something that might help them to know better, it's pooh-poohed because they can't take advantage of the opportunities you give them. They must always be coddled and handheld. Belzer's not spouting anything new, these kids were "forced" to go into the military because there was nothing else there for them, and they're just pawns in the great class struggle. Why should we expect that they had any volition in the matter? It may not be a draft, but it's just as much coercion, right?
It's a load of BS. There are a lot of reasons that people go into the military. Some do it because it's their best job option, to be sure. Some do it out of a sense of duty. Some do it because they know they can get money for college afterwards. But it's a lot easier for the left to oversimplify and act as if these kids just have no other options.
My brother joined the marine reserves back in the late eighties after dropping out of college and working in Chicago for a few years. He was at a point in his life where he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do, and the reserves gave him a taste of something different. He excelled at it, was still into it after he went to Gulf War I, and eventually went back to complete a degree. Did he want a degree so that he could go into the private sector? Nope, he wanted a degree so that he could go to OCS and sign up for active duty as an officer. Now, he's still in, although the main reason he likes staying in the Marines is that they give him the keys to helicopters and (now) airplanes and let him fly. As he'd be likely to say, "it sure beats working"... I bring him up as he's a complicated person, an individual, in the marine corps. While the left likes to act as if soldiers are simply mindless drones, each person has their own reason why they're there.
That is a post in itself, Brad.
I actually met The "Belze" once. In fairness to him he is a bigger dick than you give him credit for.
This post contains 3 of the top 2 reasons I will not have a teevee in the bedroom.
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