Scott Thomas is Outraged
By Erick Posted in War — Comments (39) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
You all by now have seen Moe's obsession with this Scott Thomas tool, right? Well, let's parse this shall we.
My pieces were always intended to provide my discrete view of the war; they were never intended as a reflection of the entire U.S. Military. I wanted Americans to have one soldier's view of events in Iraq.
Translation: I'm not lying. I said "one soldier's view." I am *one* soldier. No other soldier witnessed what I witnessed. I am not lying. It's just it was so discrete I am the one and only soldier to have witnessed any of it. Oh, please note I said 'discrete" and not "discreet." I'm so much better educated that you and my colleagues, I know the difference between the too. [Ed. -- Yes I know it should be "two," but tell Scott Thomas. After all, he's better, smarter, and clearly better educated than the rest of us.]
It's been maddening, to say the least, to see the plausibility of events that I witnessed questioned by people who have never served in Iraq.
Translation: I will ignore the fact that people serving with me right now also question the plausibility of events I claim to have witnessed and if you point it out, you are besmirching my character.
I was initially reluctant to take the time out of my already insane schedule fighting an actual war in order to play some role in an ideological battle that I never wanted to join.
Translation: Things are going so well, I've got lots of free time lately to bash my co-workers and prepare my resume for when I get home and want to join the liberal illiterati and hopefully become more popular than Kos! After all, I've been here and he was never in a war zone.
That being said, my character, my experiences, and those of my comrades in arms have been called into question, and I believe that it is important to stand by my writing under my real name.
Translation: Of course, I'm the one who called my character, my experiences, and my comrades in arms into question, but screw you for pointing that out. I stand by my statement that I and my colleagues are savage bastards and how dare you defend my colleagues.
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Scott Thomas is Outraged 39 Comments (0 topical, 39 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Amazing there aren't more nuts in the bunch. Hats off to the armed forces for keeping people out that just don't belong.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
for new media and the ability to get to the truth of matter quickly it is a shame that this was not the case during the Vietnam and the lies and hatefulness that was thrust upon our military was disgusting. God Bless the United States Military and by the way I always remind people that the military like the police and firemen etc are made up of the same people that make up the United States, there will be good and evil as there is in life.
What will you tell your children about the Battle of Baghdad? That you bravely manned the keyboard, attacking our soldiers in uniform?
about it. My son is a US Marine.
I really, really wish there was some way we arrange for you to make that comment to my face.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
make you look desparate and childish. Be careful, you might make RedState.com show up on Bill O's "blogosphere of hate" segment.
Now run along, before your RA sees you.
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Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
There have been a lot of threats of violence lately.....grow up!
It's not like we're DKos or something...
Now, back to my lurking.
Threats of violence in my neighborhood typically involve a description of the creative use of a club of some sort, or perhaps a gun or a knife. None were mentioned, none were implied.
What I did say was that I would love to see the idiot I responded to say what he typed to my face. In my experience, pinheads like him would wet their panties before actually saying something like to somebody like me. Or any one of a big bunch of the posters here.
As for your comment, you are either feeling guilty for something, or just feeling impotent. If my comment is all it takes to set you off on a whining fit, it's good we weren't face to face either. Franz & I are both housebroken. Mrs908 would figure out right away who did the "wet spot" and, frankly, then physical violence WOULD ensue.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Because I've called you out on the carpet for illiciting violence? Great example in your last message. Geeze, didn't even have to go looking for it-thanks for making it easy for me!
"If my comment is all it takes to set you off on a whining fit, it's good we weren't face to face either."
Damned straight, first of all, I'm not a man and I'm sure you wouldn't want to hit a woman now would you, being a fine gentleman and all...It's just not godly.
Second, why do you resort to threats of physical violence all the time??? Is that all you have? Where's the brain behind the muscle? Just use it, and stop intimidating Redstate users whom disagree with you on occasion. We can't all have "EXACTLY" the same ideas, opinions and feelings, then we'd just be some sort of clones with NOTHING to talk about-oh yeah, other than our HATE for the lefties.
You know, the one where I was "illiciting violence" and explain exactly where I advocated or threatened violence.
The comment that you refer to in my second message was an example of what advocating violence would really look like.
You have major problems with reading comprehension LZ. Again, with your comment that I "...resort to threats of physical violence all the time", provide some proof.
As far as "intimidating Redstate users", anybody who gets intimidated by comments on a blog is: a) not grounded in the argument they are attempting to make; b) not acquainted with tools required to make a cogent argument; c) just plain dumb.
With respect to "having the same ideas...", if you had a clue, you'd know I have no problem with other's "ideas". I do have a problem when people interject their Iideas", "feelings" or their "opinions" and try to pass them off as "facts".
You can stop your whining now. It's tiresome.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
We wouldn't want them getting uppity or anything. Getting any ideas.
Yes he is! And Erick Erickson? Not a soldier! Really, that's all you need to know.
Ah, so you through him as your proxy can attack the troops, but how dare I defend them, having not been one myself.
That's some mighty perverse logic.
I bet you even say you "support the troops" while spreading around stories making them out to be butchers and louts.
Which troops exactly do you support? Ours or theirs?
Of course we won't have that answer since I've just blammed you.
physical addresses or are you stuck with just IP's?
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
I will get you anything else you might want to know.
(Just kidding, folks.)
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Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
I like you... :>)
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3418057
“Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the Democrats believe every day is April 15.”
-Ronald Reagan
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Getting banned for chickenhawking while defending somebody who claimed to have shrugged off seeing another soldier wearing a child's skull...
Well. I mean, don't you find it sort of, you know, challenging to masturbate to that sort of mental image? Even a little?
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Because if you're going to steal, steal from the best. :)
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
Okay. *deep breath* As much as I would love to, the apparent lack of any cognitive ability of BJK to grasp this issue would make any response pointless.
Excellent writing Erick.
"It's been maddening, to say the least, to see the plausibility of events that I witnessed questioned by people who have never served in Iraq."
-Besidest the point that there is plenty of not-so-discrete' questioning of Mr. Thomas by soldiers in Iraq, is it that unreasonable for military officials who aren't currently serving to recognize implausibilities in his writing?
How incredibly arrogant.
Have you ever thought of having a waiting period between registering on this site and commenting?
I think it might keep out a lot of the riff-raff which seem to be out in force recently.
Is sort of a compliment.
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We would also like to know your advice for somebody like my daughter, who's going to graduate in two years, advice that you would give a young person.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Advice for a young person. Study history.
As mice moving into your attic. Sure, it an acknowledgment on the part of the mice that that they really like your house, but that's not much of a reason to invite them in.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
That's kind of what I was guessing. But to be honest, I'm still perplexed by calling me a chicken hawk for defending the troops. I thought the lefties supported them too.
We'll probably get some traffic as a secondary effect from the purge that they're about to have* over there, but it's not going to be particularly value-added traffic.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
*Election's coming up, and this ain't 2004: jollying along hardcore BDS sufferers isn't going to be cost-effective.
who say "you have not served so you cannot say" and then hold Cindy Sheehan up because her son served. I believe there are 2.2 million members of the active military at this time so with 300 million Americans that would make just about no one who can really speak up for or against the military and that is just silly logic but that is what the leftist world view is SILLY, dangerously silly.
those of us who have served know very little more about combat in this war on that battlefield than someone who never served at all. We've never had a protracted engagement in an urban desert setting, not even Gulf I, nor one with an information front like this one has.
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Gone 2500 years, still not PC.
and for the record, Erick can speak for me anytime.
Scott Thomas Beauchump is outraged? Shades of Molly Yard!
Faux outrage to divert attention away from what has been a pathetic, sorry display of narcissistic would-be journalism.
Jack
The World's Ruined
back to the original story.
I read the TNR article.
My opinion is that it was written by a wannabe professional writer, somebody who has read and written just enough to know what good writing is supposed to sound like. He has the flow. He has some of the words. What he wrote sounds a lot like the stuff we write in college, but more to the point, like the stuff we read in college. Maybe there's some Anthony West in there, crossed with Walter Winchell, with some Studs Terkel and Sue Grafton thrown in for good measure.
In other words, it reads like generic essay material, well-planned and outlined, with plenty of time to punch it up and make it sound like REAL MAN dialogue (as imagined by someone from another planet who's never actually participated in such talk himself). It smacks of the work of an observer; one who had the time to later think, "Wow, this could have happened this way," and who decided that what could have happened would have a better chance of being published by TNR than what actually did happen.
But I'm just guessing.
And, just how, exactly, is TNR going to vet the writing any better now than it did before it published? Shouldn't TNR just be able to say, "Here's what we knew, so we thought the column was accurate." The excuse that it was a "diarist" and not a "reporter" who wrote the column doesn't work for me at all. They published it as fact, period.
We've traded our National Sovereignty for cheap roofing and yardwork.
But not discreet. Maybe he really does know the difference, and even he is not claiming that his stories are true.
"You thought these events actually occurred Mr. Foer? No, no, no. Like Zarathustra, I was providing the view of the ubermensch, sometimes from the top of his mountain, sometimes soaring on eagle's wings. Playing out for the education and edification of the rabble the struggles of the syphilitic wuss who is frightened by women. [No! Scratch that. Start over]
"Like Zarathustra ...
What happened to standards, where's the "we checked and double checked" line, as well as the proof to back it up? Now that his name is out will the brass court martial him as TNR lamely asserted when covering for him, you know, like WO Hugh Thompson was for reporting My Lai[ he wasn't,& that's 30 yrs ago].
News to TNR, the only people who have been brought up on charges in this war are the people charged with brutality or murder, not anyone for speaking out honestly.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
...but I just e-mailed him to find out.
I am curious as to the answer.
Blue and Yellow make Green!
Gee, I am curious which pieces, published in a major journal, were "discreet". He was providing fodder for the anti war liberals, but could not help himself because the opportunity was too good.
Well Scott, we are outraged too and I am guessing a large part of your unit is also. You took and oath; breaking it because of some fantasy about a literary career. If you had an issue, as a soldier you knew the drill and process. I can't wait to hear you say that was too dangerous. You demurred opting for the subversive route; that is dishonorable.
By the way, I like how he parsed my tagline in one of his blogs titles. But I am guessing Wilfred Owen not Horace was the inspiration.
Want to us to believe you, provide the proof. Otherwise go shrink away.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Contributor to The Minority Report