Reader Mailbag

So here at the Clareywatch, we have a few friends, oddly, in the 82nd Airborne (which tells you that those guys're slumming nowadays). And, well, they were so damn fascinated by Clarey's posing as one of them while not apparently having much regard for them that said friends sometimes tune in to learn from Clarey's wisdom, and email what they find, so we don't have to go there (making this, apparently, one more thing the troops suffer on our behalf.)

Anyway, so, one of our correspondents emails in a huff over a comment by Clarey associated moron Mahan makes (PDF) about the Kent State shootings:

I am wondering if the Captain was at our alma mater when the 25th anniversary of Kent State was "commemorated" on campus? Yrs Truly chalked his own slogan of support and grieving for those noble souls on the Wash. Ave. Bridge to show his empathy and student solidarity; to wit, "You found out too early/ That dying ain't hard/ Next time don't throw bricks/ At the National Guard"

Now, our buddy is outraged because the National Guard in question fired at distant students for some unknown reason of great stupidity, and so half the people killed were bystanders going between classes -- and one of them was a ROTC cadet, shot in the back. Said correspondent sees this as emblematic of disrespect for the troops.

Far be it for us to disagree with Airborne Rangers -- hell, otherwise we wouldn't even post this -- but we disagree. For one, I can think of nothing more contemptuous of the troops than what Clarey and buddy Mahan do already -- play dress-up with military titles, but take none of the corresponding responsibilities. You want someone to call you "Commander" or "Captain" but you don't serve? That's all I need to know.

For another, I think the point is just wrong. Throwing gibes at the students killed there -- even forgetting that some were bystanders, just remembering the stupid action of the troops stupidly deployed where they shouldn't have been, when the protest itself was over the troops keeping action in a foreign country secret from Congress -- well, poking fun at those dead at a public requiem and then bragging about it afterwards requires a degree of sociopathy beyond which not much you can say matters.

So, sorry, AA's, but, we disagree.

UPDATE: well, of course, Aaron, the guy who points out that paying taxes on teaching salsa dance is morally equivalent to serving the country in war, counts up the costs of the war without counting dead, brain-injured, or maimed soldiers and their families (PDF). Big surprise.