Alex Horton: For some veterans, John Kelly’s remarks add to a worrying military-civilian divide
Alex Horton, former VoteVets writer and propagandist for the Shinseki Department of Veterans’ Affairs, now writes for the Washington Post as a hand-wringer over John Kelly’s remarks to the press the other day. Horton claims that Kelly’s comments “alarmed some of those who study relations between the military and society”. Who might these people be? Well, Horton only includes the remarks from one person – Phil Carter.
Phil Carter used to write for the Post in a weekly column that was anti-George Bush, then he became a founding member of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America when they made the transition from anti-Bush group, OpTruth. Then Carter was Obama’s veterans advisor in the 2008 presidential campaign, and finally he became the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, a job from which he was fired because he couldn’t close Guantanamo detainee facility.
So, you know, this is a totally unbiased evaluation of Kelly’s speech/sarcasm if you didn’t notice.
Kelly’s words Thursday worried Carter and others. His somber ordering of how a dead service member is moved from battlefield to burial was a helpful glimpse for Americans who have not experienced that trauma. But Carter said he paired the idea with a belief that most civilians could not conceive — or intentionally fail — to understand that burden.
“It was odd. The military does not have a monopoly on loss and hardship,” Carter said.
Another moment also struck a dissonant note. When Kelly ended his remarks by accusing Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) of using a dead soldier for political points, he told reporters he was only interested in questions from those who had a direct connection to those killed in combat.
The military does, however, have a monopoly on “loss and hardship” in service to the nation as protectors of the Constitution, something that Carter and many in the journalistic community have forgotten. The American public has overwhelmingly given high marks to the military, in the form of poll results, for the past two decades as compared to the press and politicians.
Anyone who doesn’t think that Francesca Wilson wasn’t standing in the blood of Sergeant LaDavid Johnson and using the grief of his widow for political points among the anti-Trump crowd hasn’t been paying attention to Horton’s pieces in the Post and any other piece in the Post which doesn’t like that Hillary Clinton didn’t win the election – and now the Post and Horton are trying to drag Kelly and the rest of the military down to their level.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.
Category: Politics
Is it just me or is the left beating the drum of the military is out to get us?
If they cannot turn the US Military over to their cause, then they must inevitably seek to destroy them.
No, they’re pounding as hard as they can.
Drums can be therapeutic when applied correctly… like sticking someone’s head into them. /sarc
I recommend a steel drum as they can take a much harder beating and are therefore more therapeutic per drumbeat.
The chattering ass hats of the left have determined that knowledge is rayciss and therefore don’t have any.
Fear (and worry) are caused by what people know about their own ability to deal with the unknown. If everything is unknown to you because you have rejected knowledge and empirical facts, then your world is ruled by fear and you become a worthless scribe for former newspapers.
Your comment sort of reminds me of the stories of the smart black high school students who are harassed by their black classmates for getting good grades because to do so is “acting white.”
perhaps, ignorance is worshiped by all forms of leftism. From the first Marxist revolutions right through to today, the cultural values embraced include the wholesale liquidation of anyone who possesses any knowledge not “approved”.
The resulting culture celebrates personality, thugs, and violence in both state actions and entertainment. The farther the culture embraces the leftist thought patterns, the more violent and murderous it becomes. This is why the USSR, Mao’s China, Germany and Cambodia witnessed death on industrial scales, but places like Singapore do not.
In fact, every death culture has been “leftist”, even though modern “historians” attempt to portray them as “right wing”.
In existence today is a single “right wing” nation; Singapore.
Phil Carter can suck it.
F. Wilson can suck it too. Her own “response” to Kelly’s remarks including, “I’m gonna tell my kids that I’m a rock star now!” or something to that effect.
This is another dumbshit that is only confirming General Kelly’s words about the Civ-Mil divide. You dumbasses just don’t get it.
I doubt they will ever get it, until the bugs start attacking and everyone has to serve to become a citizen….
A few will be kept around as Klendathu quislings since they are so experienced at selling out fellow humans.
Selah.
Most civilians who never served don’t get it. And all leftards/proglodytes really don’t get what military service is about, even if they did serve.
Carter was a CA officer in Iraq – he had a pretty good pre-WaPo blog that folded into the WaPo (when I stopped following it). Used to think he was a straight shooter before he got all think-tanky and Governmental/Political. Now I almost suspect his tour in Iraq was for future PR use (no one ever wrote a front page story in the WSJ about my deployments, unlike him). I know that all of you will be shocked to learn that he grew up to be a lawyer. 🙂
Civil Affairs is generally for pussies that don’t want to fight the bad guys. I was invited to become a CA officer, and I decided no way. I already knew what they did because the Army Reserve Psyop company I was in was part of a Civil Affairs command. Most lawyers are assholes, I ought to know, I was one for over 35 years.
Well, it is a troubling divide, just not for the reasons cited.
It’s troubling because it shows that Americans don’t really care about what the US does overseas or who does it for them, as l9ng as they can go to the mall and watch Netflix.
It’s troubling because few Americans knew we were in Africa, much less what we were doing there, and were far from knowing anyone that was doing it- unless they can use that fact to make a political point. Next time someone engages you on this, refuse to discuss it unless they can name anyone involved besides Trump, Wilson, or Kelly. SGT Johnson doesn’t count- they have to know the name of one of the other three Soldiers killed.
So, yes, it is troubling. But for different reasons
^^^^^This^^^^^
Amen, there.
Unfortunately, the US had had a continuing presence in Africa since the 60’s. Not many understand how big and complicated that place is…did I say complicated? I meant un-observable. I remember giving a briefing to some logistics types from SA in the early 90’s, we hit it off, and we spoke about some areas of influence and just plain trouble from a logistical point of view. Distance, roads, rails, airports, sheesh..it’s a black hole for resources.
I liked how Kelly only took questions from those who knew a gold star family, since none of them had relatives lost in service. It probably says more about what the media has become that I immediately assumed any reporter who raised their hand was lying.
I wondered about their definition of “know”. I didn’t question that they were lying, I ascribed a much more cynical explanation. Did that mean that they once wrote a story about a Gold Star family? That they camped out on the doorstep, the front lawn, had the audacity to ring the bell, question neighbors (all of which happened to me)?
The end of the Kelly video tells us all we need to know about the maturity of the media. Recall that he said “I’m not going to take any more questions, but I want to leave you with this thought.” He then proceeded to try and get the media to think about several things as he walked off the podium area. But all you could hear, as he left, was a squabble like a bunch of crows just found a corn patch. They were shouting at him with inane questions. And they knew he wouldn’t take any more.
The left has despised the US military for decades and still does, I also think they’e wanted a civil war as well and since they couldn’t stir one up along racial lines they’re now wanting to stir one up that’s military versus civilian.
The left labeled US the enemy during the VN war and enough of America bought it and acted accordingly.
The media was the conduit…cheerfully moving it along.
I stopped believing then and to date have seen no reason to believe they have changed.
Well, threats of violence didn’t work. So now the lefturds are trying persuasion instead. And none of it works. When that fails, too, what do they have left?
Nothing.
The #libidiots are attempting to get President Trump to resign, Pence to take over and resign which leaves Paul Ryan who would also resign which would leave the presidency to the House which would overwhelmingly elect Cankles McMonica and all their dreams will come true…
They think that if they make fun of all of us conservatives and anyone else that disagrees with them that we will give up, take our toy trucks and leave the sandbox.
It’s the same shit they tried in Wisconsin during the Recall of Scott Walker and failed miserably. they threw everything including the kitchen sink at him and he still beat the stupid mayor of Milwaukee by 7 points…
It’s going to happen again, they refuse to learn from their stupidity and mistakes and have now gone to being stubborn to the point of stupidity…
That insane bullshit scenario was put forward by guess who? A Harvard U law professor. Saw him bloviating on Fox several nights ago. Who says they don’t live in a parallel universe or some Bizarro world.
Larry O’Donnell tagged General Kelly a racist because he came out of an Irish working class neighborhood in Boston.
I guess if you are lace curtain like O’Donnell and the Kennedys, you are exempt.
O’Donnell is a proglodyte propagandist just like the rest of the crew at MSNBC.
What were expecting from a bunch of sore losers?
The left will never cease to be a bunch of pissy little sore losers, remember how they gloated and looked down their noses at us when President Trump’s predecessor won in 2008 and 2012 while telling us that Conservatism was dead and we needed to go to the back of the bus?
I was also alarmed. Gen. Kelly said only 1% of us have served. I thought it was 2%. Has our number in relation to the general population continued to shrink?
Oh Yeah, Ms Sparkle Hat can suck on my family jewels.
If you look at post-9/11, less than 1 percent of military-age men and women have served, so yeah.
Actually, the general was generous, it is less than 1%..
23 million veterans in a nation of over 300 million. Yep, less than 1%. Over 3 million have deployed to a war zone, 6918 (last number I’ve seen quoted, by the Infantry Museum GWOT Memorial) have been KIA, or .002%. While we are grateful, as I’m sure all of you are, that number is so comparatively small as compared to other conflicts, it is not surprising the vast majority of the country has no understanding.
Like my community has been saying, while we would like people to understand the cost of freedom, we were seemingly better off when people had no clue what Gold Star meant. Now, everyone thinks they know, but what they think they know is still wrong, kind of like how they think they know anything about military service, much less during a time of war, because they watched a movie or play CoD.
I’m of the opinion that we will never get the 99% to understand. I’m now just hoping we can get the 99% to leave us alone and stop dragging us, and you, into the mud of politics to score their political points.
Sadly, it was here on this site I recently read that just because someone is a Gold Star doesn’t make them qualified to have an opinion. I’d submit that a large percentage of that .002% are significantly more qualified than a large percentage of either the civilian, military or veteran world. We have to learn and become aware to protect ourselves, particularly in this special snowflake climate. We must, not for ourselves, but to protect the honor and memory of our loved ones.
I now pretty much subscribe to the concepts of Tribe and anti-assimilation, at least as long this liberalism is the prevailing attitude of the media and academia. Which probably means forever.
23 million veterans?
If that number is right that means about 7 percent of the 320 million Americans have served in the military.
If 3 million have served since 2001 then yea, that would be 1 percent.
Does anybody have hard data on this?
Here’s a link to the VA population infographic. 20 million veterans as of 2017 according to them. That number doesn’t appear to include active duty and reserve, which is, I believe 1.2 million and 800,000, respectively.
https://www.va.gov/vetdata/docs/Demographics/New_Vetpop_Model/Vetpop_Infographic_Final31.pdf
NO, the numbers I have seen show that even with the guard and reserves, less than 1 percent are in uniform.
One wonders if Horton believes the tripe he spews forth or does so for the money. With Gibbons-Neff off to the NYT, WAPO likely needed another liberal Veteran to write in support of their Dem supportive POV, and along comes Horton…
VoteVets….a liberal PAC, an abyss which uses vets as a prop…much like Wilson used Sergeant La David Johnson for a personal agenda.
Don’t forget about the huge number of people who don’t even belong within our borders and don’t give a shit about our sovernty or our laws or customs or anything else let alone serve in our defense forces.
“those who study relations between the military and society”
Who are these people? What facts do they have as opposed to opinions.
My father was an only child, he served 26 years in the military.
My father was one of 5 children three girls two boys. All five served in the military (4 enlisted 1 officer) one retired from the USNR.
My parents had three children (two females one male). Two retired from the AF and one served in the Army, her husband retired from the Army. The remaining members of that generation of the family number nine and one served six years in the Navy. None were drafted. Another served in the Peace Corps.
Are we disconnected?
Are we disconnected from
You said father twice. Was one of those supposed to be grandfather?
The second should have said mother.
You are disconnected sort of…
It’s not true of all who serve but it is becoming a trend that those who serve had family as former service members. My dad had a heart murmur and wasn’t allowed to serve but his brothers did, as did virtually all of my mom’s uncles and a couple of her brothers…
Both of my kids also served…so there is definitely a trend.
Here’s a quote from an article on the topic:
“Pentagon data show that 80% of recent troops come from a family where at least one parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, sibling or cousin has also worn their nation’s uniform. More than 25% have a parent who has served.”
Given the state of this society I am rather proud to be “disconnected”. That just proves I am also “deplorable”, too.
For those who might have missed it, Frederica Wilson’s latest rant is that the Niger ambush resulting in the killing of LaDavid Johnson is Donald Trump’s “Benghazi.” And never mind that the two events share almost no similarity except for the fact they both happened on the same continent.
Something that makes this even more disturbing is that Wilson is apparently basing her opinion on some sort of conspiracy theory. The sad fact that Johnson was found dead four days later and a mile away from the ambush site being due, in her view, to racist policy that treats casualties “of color” differently. The fact that the Army may not yet know all the details of what happened in the Niger ambush, or want to reveal certain details as a matter of operational security apparently being irrelevant. Or the possibility that certain details might be kept confidential as a courtesy to protect the sensibility of surviving family such as Johnson’s wife.
An additional irony is that Wilson has long been demanding the U.S. take action in that part of Africa threatened by Boko Haram. One of her hobby horses, for example, has been the still unresolved issue of 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group in 2014. So it borders on the bizarre that this week she would be clueless enough to publicly wonder why Special Forces was running the mission in Niger at all.
The left now knows that the military is no longer under a CIC that tried to make the services a social experiment that fit their agenda.
They fear the military because its going back to being a bastion of conservative values and rejecting that its some sort of peace corps organization that should worry more about social justice warrior issues than winning wars.
16 of the past 24 years the military suffered under Clinton and Obama, biting their lip and enforcing bullshit legislation that tried to crush the warrior spirit.
Unqualified pieces of shit like Commissar, Bateman and other clowns were kept and promoted.
Hopefully under Trump the services will purge the ranks.
I disagree that the media fears the military, no one fears a group that represents less than 1% of eligible voters.
I think the media fears being unable to use the military as a vehicle to advance their liberal ideals amongst independent voters. When the military was being forced by the previous administration to be the social experiment it was instead of primarily being designed to kill the enemies of the United States many media outlets were touting the members of those experiments as an indication of the virtue of our society as evidenced by the acceptance of these folks into the military. The fact that it was a forced acceptance was seldom mentioned.
A military of primarily conservative voters unconcerned with social justice ideology and more concerned with America’s interests and killing her enemies is less useable as a vehicle for political gain for liberals.
No likes when their options for exploitative gain are reduced.
Is this the same Alex Horton that wrote about being the victim of a police raid in Virginia? Isn’t he supposed to be absolutely trustworthy in all that he writes and says?
Thought he was full of shiite then and see he still is.
I’ve changed my mind about a lot of people since the last election.