Blogfight

I generally don’t fall into the DLC bashing group since I used to consider myself a DLC kind of guy on many issues. Since From, Reed and Marshall Wittman have decided to blame Democrats for everything despite the Administration’s blundering mendacity, I stopped that and while I’m more conservative than many in the net roots, I don’t see that as opposed to being stridently anti-Bush (think Ed Kilgore).

Today though, Marshall Wittman is a huge ass:

Now that Mr. Kos has performed in a Lamont ad, should the Moose make a cameo for Joe?

And the Moose also wonders whether Mr. Lamont was aware of Mr. Kos’ infamous “screw ’em” comments about the American victims of terrorism ?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

What he is referring to is Markos’ comments about American by nationality mercenaries killed in Iraq. The problem is it’s really hard to call that an act of terrorism. The men killed were fighting without a country as paid mercenaries and went into an area without the appropriate support, but most basically, they were armed combatants in a war zone, not innocent civilians walking down the street attacked for no reason. They were legitimate military targets. Their treatment broke humane treatment for sure, but targeting them was not unreasonable given their status as combatants. They weren’t victims of terrorists, they were victims of their own stupidity.

They chose to fight in a war without a national flag. They went into a war zone and then got their dumb asses killed by going in without effective support.

I disagreed with Markos in saying Screw ’em because they were human beings and as such only the most odious deserve such sentiments. However, the United States of America doesn’t have a responsibility to defend those who are paid by corporations for mercenary work and mercenaries are combatants. They weren’t attacked out of the blue, they were attacked by other combatants even if those were non-traditional.

Trying to make Markos sound evil because he opposes the practice of mercenaries and doesn’t feel that the US Government is in the business of defending private mercenaries who aren’t fighting for their country, but for their corporation, isn’t the same as being callous towards actual victims of terrorism.