By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--December 31, 2010
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To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America’s or the Taliban’s: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I’ve had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring.And therein lies his faulty sense of morality. Leaving aside the fact that there is no “Taliban Army” (because “the Taliban” isn’t a “the” but is made up rather of all sorts of different groups loosely affiliated one with the other) this cretin is equating the men and women of the U.S. military to the illiterate, murderous, oppressive members of the Taliban. McCarthy claims he “admires” the Taliban as much as he does U.S. soldiers but I’d suggest that this is a lie. I’d suggest he actually admires the Taliban’s killers more than he does American soldiers. After all, where are his editorials denouncing the Taliban? On the other hand, this deluded peacenik has an admittedly long history of attacking the U.S. Army and the country it protects. The moral truth that McCarthy and his fellow left-wingers miss is that some causes that people join simply are not laudable enough to engender admiration no matter how much devotion is lent to the cause. To join the oppressive forces of the Taliban is simply nothing to admire. To become an al Qaeda “soldier of Allah” is a disgrace, not something to admire even if the joiner truly believes in the cause. In the end, only a leftist can say that a U.S. soldier is just as admirable as a terrorist.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.