Tough Love: It's a testament to the barren irrelevance of the pre-Welch LA Times Op-Ed section*, and Joel Stein's place therein, that it took me two days to find out that this column had even been published, even though I perused the section on the day in question. But now that he's been the target of attacks from the whole gamut of blogospheric punditry, from Malkin to Atrios, it behooves me to argue that Stein's logic is inescapable. Those young men (and women) who volunteer to serve in the U.S. armed forces either have a pretty good idea of what they're getting themselves into, or are willfully blind about the consequences. As Stein wrote:

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

(snip)

The truth is that people who pull triggers are ultimately responsible, whether they're following orders or not. An army of people making individual moral choices may be inefficient, but an army of people ignoring their morality is horrifying. An army of people ignoring their morality, by the way, is also Jack Abramoff's pet name for the House of Representatives.

I do sympathize with people who joined up to protect our country, especially after 9/11, and were tricked into fighting in Iraq. I get mad when I'm tricked into clicking on a pop-up ad, so I can only imagine how they feel.

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

Our volunteer military is not supposed to be an army of mercenaries. They're supposed to be defending the ideals and principles of America, not just the ideological objectives of a cabal of political hacks. Holding people accountable for their actions may be politically incorrect, but it still needs to be done. Stein's demand that we act as if our soldiers have some degree of self-agency is a useful reminder to those who contemplate enlisting in the Armed Forces during the remaining years of the Bush Administration, that they will be sent to fight on missions, like "Operation Iraqi Freedom", that are wholly unconnected to the defense and service of their country. In the long run, his column will save lives.

*Notwithstanding the Times' outstanding Sunday Current section.