wombat_socho

And since we are both part of the family of fen in the same city, I'm not sure we are really strangers even if we've never me.
More like red-headed stepchild in my case, but we do have fandom in common - though I learned many decades ago not to assume that other fans share my politics just because they're fans. Quite the contrary, and especially in these parts.

So, feel free, spill, what's your problem with my post?
We have some basic disagreements about W and the Administration, especially with respect to the war. You view them as evil and driven by a desire for personal gain (which is not at all supported by credible evidence) whereas I don't think they've handled the war at all well after the initial blitzkrieg that toppled Saddam Hussein and his regime, but I don't believe that policy differences deserve to be redacted to evil/good dichotomies and I think that kind of attitude is really corrosive to the kind of nation we're supposed to be. Disagreement is one thing, but treating your opponents as evil people to be destroyed is just wrong imo.

As to the specifics of the post...I used to be in the Army/Army Reserve, specifically in the electronic warfare/military intelligence part of it, and OPSEC was drilled into us pretty hard. So when I look at the regulation in question here, I can see that it's overly broad and has some ugly side effects. Most of the milblogs out there (and I'd be happy to provide a collection of bookmarks for you to peruse, if you're interested) support the war against Al Qaeda and the Sunni bitter-enders who are causing most of the remaining problem in Iraq, in contrast to the mainstream media who have made it abundantly clear that they do not support the war and are willing to fold, spindle and mutilate the truth in order to undercut domestic support for it. So my concern is mainly that the majority of the troops who support the war and follow the rules are going to be muzzled while the handful who oppose it are just going to keep on with it regardless of the regulations.

Trolling isn't just an LJ term; it refers to deliberately baiting someone on the internet to draw an angry response. I didn't think that was what you were up to, but occasionally I do tend to think "out loud" when replying to comments. I encourage you to take a stroll through the last few years of my LJ, particularly posts with the "culture & politics" and "military" tags. You'll get a much better idea where I'm coming from on this and other issues; I'm guessing it's a place you don't normally see a lot of folks from. ;)


Oh, boy. Where to start with this?