My Big Blogging Mistake

I realized something last night. I made a huge mistake. I try to be honest and open, but sometimes you can take it a step too far. This is the case with my post on the draft for the Iraq war in which I explained why I hadn’t volunteered. 

Reading some comments on other blogs, I see people have additional questions. I answered one that was about a factual issue with what I’d said, and then began to write more and stopped.

I’d fallen into the trap of treating this question like:

1) It’s an honest question

2) It deserves an answer.

Clearly neither is correct. It’s not a legitimate question. It’s an argument against the war that can best be defined as an Ad Hominem To Quo Que, an argument that the war is wrong because those who support it aren’t fighting it. Of course, I’m not the only conservative to do this, I’ve seen several others try and excuse their act of service.

It attacks the honor and patriotism of a conservative, something we can NEVER do to Cindy Sheehan or the anti-war left who have no problem helping our nation’s enemies, by delivering their talking points. Don’t question their patriotism, because dissent is the highest form of patriotism, don’t you know? (And here I thought laying your life down on the battlefield might rank a little higher.)

These liberals who want treated with kid gloves and expect their words and acts to undermine our troops and our commander in chief in warm time need to be told to pound sand and told it’s none of their business. They can prance around saying we need a draft all day long if they’d like. But here’s the deal. We have one President at a time and like it or not, it’s not them, Al Gore, or John Kerry, nor is it one general who says the draft needs to be an available “option.” The blogosphere is filled with Arm Chair Generals, few of which ever even had a commission and some folks think they should decide.

The President has not called for additional troops, has not called for a draft, and there may soon be a pull back of some troops in the region. Yes, the deployments overseas are hard on our troops, but re-enlistment rates are high. They knew the job had dangers and could be hard and difficult when they took it. That’s why they complain a lot less about their lot in life than their self-appointed defenders on the left, who want to use them to score cheap political points.