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Related: About this forumSome thoughts upon Memorial Day: with Chris Hayes
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979738/vp/47581623#47581623As Chris asks on his Twitter account...."ask people to watch this and see if we were being insufficiently respectful"
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Some thoughts upon Memorial Day: with Chris Hayes (Original Post)
edcantor
May 2012
OP
Exactly right: how do we separate the heros from the war criminal when we support the troops?
marble falls
May 2012
#3
alp227
(32,006 posts)1. I heard about this segment from a local radio show
Stacy Taylor pointed out how Hayes said he didn't want to call fallen soldiers "heroes", and of course the right wing is screaming.
example http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2012/05/27/chris-hayes-im-uncomfortable-calling-fallen-military-heroes
90-percent
(6,828 posts)2. Best warmonger chickenhawk line EVER
"So what? They volunteered." - Dick Cheney
-90% Jimmy
marble falls
(57,014 posts)3. Exactly right: how do we separate the heros from the war criminal when we support the troops?
If there had been a draft, Bush definitely would not have had a second term (or at least one he could have stolen) and Afghanistan and Iraq would have been over eight years ago.
edcantor
(325 posts)4. Chris Hayes has issued a statement of apology
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/chris-hayes-i-am-deeply-sorry
We're not really allowed to have an adult conversion about war because political adversaries are so eager to use our words to polarize and attack -- which is what happened to Chris Hayes yesterday when he discussed his discomfort with the word "hero" during his Memorial Day segment. He has since issued this statement:
On Sunday, in discussing the uses of the word "hero" to describe those members of the armed forces who have given their lives, I don't think I lived up to the standards of rigor, respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we discuss that I've set for myself. I am deeply sorry for that.
As many have rightly pointed out, it's very easy for me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or walked a mile in their boots. Of course, that is true of the overwhelming majority of our nation's citizens as a whole. One of the points made during Sunday's show was just how removed most Americans are from the wars we fight, how small a percentage of our population is asked to shoulder the entire burden and how easy it becomes to never read the names of those who are wounded and fight and die, to not ask questions about the direction of our strategy in Afghanistan, and to assuage our own collective guilt about this disconnect with a pro-forma ritual that we observe briefly before returning to our barbecues.
But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don't, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.
On Sunday, in discussing the uses of the word "hero" to describe those members of the armed forces who have given their lives, I don't think I lived up to the standards of rigor, respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we discuss that I've set for myself. I am deeply sorry for that.
As many have rightly pointed out, it's very easy for me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or walked a mile in their boots. Of course, that is true of the overwhelming majority of our nation's citizens as a whole. One of the points made during Sunday's show was just how removed most Americans are from the wars we fight, how small a percentage of our population is asked to shoulder the entire burden and how easy it becomes to never read the names of those who are wounded and fight and die, to not ask questions about the direction of our strategy in Afghanistan, and to assuage our own collective guilt about this disconnect with a pro-forma ritual that we observe briefly before returning to our barbecues.
But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don't, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.