Incredible Ignorance About JAG

An incredible amount of ignorance is being portrayed by several prominent left-wingers in the blogosphere today. Both Atrios and Armando at Daily Kos are attacking the son of Governor Pataki because he has been granted an educational delay from his Marine Corps service in order to attend law school and become a Marine JAG officer, just as I have done with my Army ROTC committment.

Both posts demonstrate an utter lack of understanding regarding the way the military allocates its officers and a reckless desire to blame a child for the "sins" of his father. Furthermore, they are quite insulting to those of who are choosing to serve our country in a way that has become increasingly vital to our national security.

It is beyond belief to me that these same bloggers attack those who don't serve (the "chickenhawk" label), and then attack those who do serve in a way they don't approve of. Or that they are outraged at things like Abu Ghraib or torture at Gitmo, but don't appreciate how important a role good JAG officers can play in preventing such things. The base assumption that Lt. Pataki must be doing this to avoid service in Iraq is demeaning to all who choose JAG, and especially those JAG officers in Iraq right now.

The commenters in Armando's post do a great job of displaying the untenability of his position, and the way he tries to defend himself... well I think his statements speak for themselves.

Poor form all around, and really personally disappointing to me. I truly believe that you can support the soldiers without supporting the war. Here, I don't think they are even doing the first.