Yeah, well, I still prefer he-who-must-not-be-named's bloviations on that subject. It's just "monstrously unfair", not to mention "McCarthyite". Crap like the "useful idiot" / "hate America" garbage that is obligatory from the LindyBill / Nadine hothead faction is something else again, ain't it, Bill? Anyway, too bad he-who-must-not-be-named and his buddies couldn't be bothered to listen to the Army brass, but they obviously know better. They know everything, and they're always right.
Richard Perle: Well, I haven’t seen any reference to chicken doves, so I assume that it’s only if you take a hawkish position that the fact that you did not serve in the military is held against you. I think it’s an intimidating McCarthyite tactic. It tries to de-legitimize the views of people on an entirely irrelevant measure. It is true that I did not serve in the armed forces. It’s in part because I was a student at a time when student deferments were a normal thing, and then I was married. And they weren’t taking married men into the Army, so I didn’t serve. I was not opposed in any way to service, but the notion that I’m not entitled to a view or at least not entitled to a view that somebody decides is hawkish because I didn’t serve is just monstrously unfair. pbs.org |
