An American soldier goes missing, turns up as a prisoner in a Taliban propaganda video. Then Fox News "analyst" Ralph Peters publicly states that the soldier is probably a deserter, and "the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills." Here's Rachel Maddow discussing the situation.
As far as anyone can tell, Ralph Peters' "source" is his butt, from which he pulled this "inside" information that the soldier abandoned his unit.
Why go to all this trouble to slander a captured soldier? What's the point? Personally, I think it's because Peters' form of conservatism shares qualities with karma and "The Secret." On a basic level, it is the belief that everyone deserves what they get. Are you poor? It's because you did something bad in another life. Got cancer? It's because you "wanted" cancer. Are you a prisoner of a murderous dictatorship in a foreign country? Well, I don't know exactly what you did, but somehow you must deserve it.
I suspect that people such as the odious Michelle Malkin are willing to believe Peters because it makes them feel better. It's very sad if a soldier is in enemy hands and possibly facing execution. But if you can convince yourself that he OUGHT to be executed, well then, problem solved.
That's so messed up
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job summing up the short comings in conservative/libertarian philosophies. It does share that element with karma/the secret, that the world is as it ought to be, that we are where we ought to be, and that if bad things happen to you, you deserve it, or you caused it, completely ignoring the fact that there are other actors in the world that can have an effect on you.
ReplyDeleteThere is also something to be said of the bias Fox News has for anything under Democratic authority.
ReplyDeleteIf a soldier was captured or missing during the Bush administration, Fox news would be jingoistic in its repudiation of the "enemy" or "terrorists" or whatever they would call them, trumpeting up support to carpet bomb the country and pretty much convincing themselves that this is a just war. Their mantra would have been: "You do this to our troops? Screw them and anyone who disagrees is unpatriotic!"
Now that the military is under Barack Obama, the mantra is: "It is obvious that any missing or captured troop defected, so who cares?"