Joel Stein Roundup – UPDATED

UPDATE: Vanderleun at American Digest has what is probably the final word on Stein. It’s very good writing, very perceptive. And a little worrisome.

If you’re like me, you’ve seen about a million blogposts about Joel Stein’s Warriors and Wusses column – so many that you haven’t been able to read them all or keep them straight.

I could lie and say I’m grouping them together here, for your convenience. The sad truth is, I’m also doing it for me, for my convenience. I’ve got tabs open all over the place!

If you are not sure what the fuss is, Stein wrote – among other things: I DON’T SUPPORT our troops….I’m not advocating that we spit on returning veterans like they did after the Vietnam War, but we shouldn’t be celebrating people for doing something we don’t think was a good idea. All I’m asking is that we give our returning soldiers what they need: hospitals, pensions, mental health and a safe, immediate return. But, please, no parades.

Seriously, the traffic is insufferable.

Okay, I gave you the opening line and the closing graphs – you can go read the stuff in between if you like.

I have read and enjoyed some of Stein’s pieces in the past, and I think he was trying to be both serious but “light” in this column and it came off very, very badly. His point seemed to be that people who do not support the war should not support the troops (and to be honest, many on the right have questioned how someone can embrace that duality of supporting the troops, but not their Commander-in-Chief or their mission, so it’s certainly an opinion someon can hold).

The problem with the column is I don’t think you can be both serious and light on this subject without sounding foolish or dismissive or just plain too-adolescent-by-half…and no one likes someone to sound that way. If Stein really wanted to indict his fellow Iraq-War-Protestors with a charge of hypocrisy, then he should have stuck to the subject and not veered into various avenues of contemptuous sneers. He needed to stay focused.

Stein compounded that perception of adolescent trivialization and dissmissiveness, by agreeting to an interview with Hugh Hewitt that simply made him sound profoundly unserious, intellectually dishonest and – to use the press’ new favorite expression – in a bit of a “bubble.”

HH: Has he been deployed abroad?

JS: He has been deployed to Asia.

HH: Did you support [Stein’s cousin] when he was in Asia?

JS: Um, support is an interesting word. Did I support him in Asia? Sure, he wasn’t on active military duty. He wasn’t fighting.

HH: And so, that’s okay to have someone over there hanging around?

JS: Yeah, if someone’s welcomed to a country, as basically they are in South Korea and Japan, yeah. I don’t have a problem with that.
…
HH: And so, do you think [Marine Lt. JP Blecksmith] died in vain?

JS: Yeah. I do. And that’s why I’m so horrified by all this, and why I don’t want empty sentiments prolonging the war.
…

HH: Now let me ask you about the benefits that the president and supporters of the war point to, which is the end of a brutal regime in Afghanistan, and a brutal regime in Iraq? Is Iraq better off today than it was in February of 2003?

JS: I don’t think it’s the U.S.’ job to make countries better than they were, or else we’d be really busy.

HH: Joel, I understand. It’s a perfectly legitimate point of view. But it’s not what I asked, though. Do you think objectively, that Iraq is better off today than it was in February in 2003?

JS: Februrary…um, again, I haven’t been…it’s hard for me to say. It’s not a great place, and I think it’s better than it was under Saddam.

JS: Well, if they haven’t, what have they accomplished?

HH: I’m asking you, Joel. You wrote the column. You tell me. Have they accomplished nothing?

JS: Well, um, do I think that I, as an American, are safer because of what they did?

HH: That wasn’t what I asked. I askd did they accomplish anything in going to Afghanistan.

JS: If I were an Afghani, I would probably…if I lived in Kabul, I probably would think that they accomplished something, sure.

I feel kind of bad for Stein – he admits to Hewitt that he did not write clearly, and even ruefully says, “I don’t think anyone’s ever said ‘good column’ to me, and maybe for good reason.” A line which tells me the young man has enough chops to be self-deprecating. I don’t think he’s a terrible person. I think holds a position that is largely based on feelings and articulated those feelings and that position very badly. I give him credit for talking to Hugh. I kind of wish he would revisit the column in a few weeks, possibly after spending a little time – the barest amount of time – with some military folk who understand the mission in Iraq and could help him to – if not support it – at least appreciate what is actually happening there and see the military as something more than a crew being misused by their government.

Michelle Malkin has 25 ways you can show support to the troops, and at The American Thinker, a soldier responds to Stein.

More Stein:
Steven Spruiell with another Stein column that is pretty disrespectful to soldiers.
Jim Treacher
Instapundit with many links.
Stanford Alumni
Laura Lee Donoho
Lileks
Mark in Mexico (Lots of links!)
Aaron
Tigerhawk
Junkyard Blog
Regular Thoughts.