Why is Arkin still at the WaPo?

Of course we all remember William Arkin‘s “These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President’s handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect”. And his follow up “I can see, in the military blogs and in the comments of those who have written about my posts last week, that those who refer to themselves as Vietnam veterans still yearn for the recognition and thanks that they believe they haven’t received. There is no question that Vietnam is still an open wound for them, and that they therefore only recognize the worth of fellow veterans, of those who have been through exactly the same experience.” As well as his lamentation at not being invited to the MilBlog convention last year.

Well, catching up on stuff, I made my daily trip over The Weekly Standard blog and found this jewel by John Noonan on William Arkin’s latest attempt at being a national security expert at the Washington Post “Getting the Military Out of The Nuclear Business”

Now my favorite part. After incorrectly interpreting the report, and drawing a false conclusion based on what seems to be little or no research, Arkin decides that nukes either need to be handed over to the Department of Energy (which retains non-military control of nuclear weapons) or outsourced:

Last August’s incident demonstrated that all the systems of security and control can break down because the nuclear weapons themselves are routinely mated with military equipment–particularly in the case of bombers and nuclear fighters–that is otherwise and regularly used to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a system made for ultimate failure and one that will always challenge operators to maintain expertise on two very different “planes.” Perhaps it is time to give the missile force and the nuclear weapons back to the Department of Energy (the successor to the old AEC) or, God forbid, “contract” out the day-to-day maintenance to corporate experts.

I was unaware that the DoE had nuclear delivery capabilities. And I’d love to know which contractor would receive the fat nuclear weapons contract. Blackwater perhaps?

The true problem, the one the Air Force can’t address, is that the nation doesn’t really want to invest in a cadre of dedicated nuclear weapons experts in uniform anymore. Some see that as a crisis; I see it as an opportunity to get the military even more out of the nuclear business.

I’m not sure what polling data Arkin is referencing when he decided to speak for the entire country, but I do know that I’d rather have military nuclear professionals (who have a spotless, 60+ year record of accident-free nuclear handling) responsible for these weapons than some corporation or government agency that has no idea how to actually employ them.

Can you imagine Department of Energy civilians being in charge of our nuclear weapons? The same kind of civilians that can’t find that package you shipped through the post office last year. The same Department of Energy that just a dozen years ago thought that having different levels of security access affected their employees’ self-esteem.

So why does the Washington Post continue to employ this goober? Other than the fact that he sticks to the WaPo’s line that the military is bad and government bureaucrats have all of the correct answers all of the time, he’s completely useless. His military background is limited to driving up to the Berlin Wall a few times (probably under heavy supervision), and he doesn’t bother to check his facts (as Noonan demonstrates with a few phone calls).

Well, this post guarantees me another year’s worth of hits from Vermont as Arkin googles his name.

Category: Media, Phony soldiers, Politics