Right wing goes rabid on soldier's story

Your blogstress, ensconced at the BlogHer conference in Chicago, is not in a position to expound on this, but she urges her devotees to familiarize themselves with this non-scandal.

Essentially, The New Republic ran several-first person pieces by a soldier based in Iraq, using a nom de plume composed of the private's first and middle names. The most recent piece by Pvt. Scott Thomas got the scoundrel patriots over at The Weekly Standard howling, as the solider wrote of his own callous behavior toward a wounded soldier, as well as some gruesome practices and animal torture by fellow soldiers.

Must've been made up, the righties roared. Made your blogstress think of all the righties who protested as unpatriotic members of the African-American Hemings family who claimed Thomas Jefferson as an ancestor. (Surely, our founding father wouldn't have committed adultery!!! With a Negro woman!!! That he owned!!!)

To these people, American soldiers are all good, bearers of Hershey bars, nylons and freedom to an ungrateful people. And founding fathers -- well, never mind the slaves they owned who looked a bit like the masters. Because Founding Fathers are paragons of virtue. And so are traumatized young men sent off to war.

To the credit of the TNR editors, they stood by their man while they investigated his story in response to the right-wing attack. And to the soldier's credit, he revealed his full name. Now he really needs our prayers.

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