pecunium: (Default)
[personal profile] pecunium
The "Right" likes to say the "Left" doesn't understand the troops. They like to say that they support the troops, and the left despise them.

So, it's interesting to see the sort of "understanding and support" Dave Rye (a news guy [TV and Radio] guy in Montana), has for the troops.

"Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as "recalcitrant" escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant. I doubt if it’s spoken all that much in Ismay, either.

The soldiers had the help and probably the encouragement of a writer with an agenda, from a newspaper which has always had one. Its continually declining circulation now mainly consists of those who want desperately to consider themselves sophisticated as well as compassionate, even if that means always branding the U.S. as the chief villain on the world stage—-in fact, especially if it does."


The Grace Note on that little piece of insulting bile (as a SSG, let me say I've used words a lot less common than recalcitrant, in conversation no less, so in a piece of persuasive writing you can sure as shit imagine I'd use it) is that line at the front.

He could have made the accusation of the soldier being a dupe while SSG Gray was alive to respond. The Op-ed he's talking about came out weeks ago.

If I wanted to be tendentious I'd say Mr. Rye waited because he 1: is lying through his teeth, or 2: is a base coward who didn't want to deal with the response of the man he insulted.

But the insult is deeper than that. He's said soldiers, and soldiers in positions where life and death of subordinates, as well as the successful accomplishement of mission, are dumber than a box of rocks (he also said the residents of Red State Montana aren't too well educated either).

Me, I've known more than a few SSGs (and PVTs, for that matter) with more than a little education. Language both beautiful and scatolocigal has come from between their lips; often in the same tirade.

I await the Right's, justifiably outraged, denunciation of this loudmouth for his calumnation of this dead soldier; in specific, and the rest of the Army in general.

Forgive me if I don't hold my breath while I wait.


website free tracking

Date: 2007-09-18 06:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fjm.livejournal.com
From the UK this seems bizarre: the complexity of syntax and vocabulary of US "army speak" at all levels, is actually a source of much humour here. Not only is the idiot insulting, but he clearly hasn't heard very many interviews with US soldiers at all.

Profile

pecunium: (Default)
pecunium

June 2023

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11 121314151617
181920212223 24
252627282930 

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 26th, 2026 08:08 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios