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August 21, 2007
MSNBC's Tucker Carlson Attacks the Troops (82nd Airborne Op-Ed)
By Frank Vyan Walton
Seven Members of the 82nd Airborne tell us about the "War As they See it" after 15 months of being "In Country" , and MSNBC Host Tucker says - "What the Hell would (They) Know About it?"
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In an exchange with an MSNBC Military Analyst Tfucker Carlson proceeded to toss a bucket-full of salt onto the tale of 7 members of the 82nd Airborne who published an Op-ed in the New York Times this week that completely eviscerated the claims of dog and pony pundits such as Micheal O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack.
Showing just how much he respects the troops opinion on how well the surge is working and how most Iraqis feel about it, Tfucker claimed - "How the hell would (they) know?"
MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, whose father, Richard Carlson, is on the advisory committee of Scooter Libby’s legal defense fund, spoke to Salon today about Valerie Plame’s covert status: “CIA clearly didn’t really give a sh*t about keeping her identity secret if she’s going to work at f*cking Langley.” Carlson then added “I call bullsh*t on that, I don’t care what they say,”
Tfucker: I'm uncomfortable with it since there has been this separation between active duty military and politics. That the service members kind of act out the policy of the U.S. Government - right or wrong - but they don't comment on it because you want civilian control of the military and that has always been our tradition and 2: I wonder if weighing in on a political question such as this doesn't squander the awesome moral authority that these guys already have.
Col. Jack Jacobs: I do think there is some detriment to the moral authority you're talking about. I think that these soldiers thought were performing a public service by making the public aware of what they see is happening at the lowest possible levels, but of course we only see a broad brush of the strategy, we don't see what happens tactically. So I think they thought they were performing a public service - and in a certain respect they are - don't forget now, that we're in an environment that you can get information in a wide variety of ways. No longer do you have to watch the news, or to you and me. (THANK GOD!) There are soldiers all the time, sending back dispatches from the forward edge of the battle area - on the net. Now it's difficult to police.
Jacobs: The attitudes that we see in this op-ed piece may have been the same kinds of attitudes we might have had 40 years ago in Vietnam.
But you didn't hear about them 40-years ago, you're hearing them today because of the new methods of disseminating information.
Tfucker: Yeah, I'm not sure what to think - you see - like most Americans I instinctively respect those who are currently serving in a war zone, absolutely,
Tfucker: and I'm not sure whether the surge is working or not. I honestly don't know and I'm not taking a position on that, I don't have the information,
I instinctively distrust sentences like this - and this is from the Op-ed.
A vast majority of Iraqi's feel insecure and view us as an occupation force.
When the President uses phrases like that - "the vast majority of Iraqis (want this or don't want that)" - my first question is How the hell does he know, and that's my first thought here. These guys may be fighting the war but they don't have access to the "vast majority" of anybody in Iraq.
Jacobs: That's absolutely correct, they see the world through a straw - they see only what they see. You raise an important point, to what extent are we supposed to listen to anybodies estimate of what's going on?
Tfucker: Right
Born and Bred in South Central LA. I spent 12 years working in the IT Dept. for federal contractor Northrop-Grumman on classified and high security projects such as the B2 Bomber. After Northrop I became an IT consultant with the state of California in Sacramento and worked on projects with the Dept of Consumer Affairs and CalTrans, as well as projects for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. Now living in Los Angeles with my own independant web design company where I operate the Truth 2 Power Online Radio Station.