They’re not children in Iraq; they’re grown-ups who made their own decision to join the military. That seems to be difficult for the left to grasp. Ever since America’s all-adult, all-volunteer army went into Iraq, the anti-war crowd have made a sustained effort to characterize them as “children.” If a 13-year-old wants to have an abortion, that’s her decision and her parents shouldn’t get a look-in. If a 21-year-old wants to drop to the broadloom in Bill Clinton’s Oval Office, she’s a grown woman and free to do what she wants. But, if a 22- or 25- or 37-year-old is serving his country overseas, he’s a wee “child” who isn’t really old enough to know what he’s doing.
I get many e-mails from soldiers in Iraq, and they sound a lot more grown-up than most Ivy League professors and certainly than Maureen Dowd, who writes like she’s auditioning for a minor supporting role in ”Sex And The City.”
Ouch. He’s going to make a lot of people regret that whole “the personal is political” thing . . . .
Not even proud Bush-hater Jonathan Chait is impressed with the Sheehan argument as interpreted by Dowd:
Everybody, of course, ought to feel horrible for Sheehan, and to honor her son’s bravery. But Sheehan’s supporters don’t just want us to sympathize with her. They believe that her loss gives her views on the Iraq war more sway than the views of the rest of us. As Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times, “the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.” . . .
One of the important ideas of a democratic culture is that we all have equal standing in the public square. That doesn’t mean stupid ideas should be taken as seriously as smart ones. It means that the content of an argument should be judged on its own merits.
One doubts that Dowd would grant “absolute” moral authority to, say, the Pope, and her uncharacteristic embrace of the notion here seems a bit opportunistic, as, in fact, does the whole episode.
Jeff Jarvis has more thoughts. And judging by the poll data reported by Will Franklin it’s mostly involved both sides playing to their bases without doing much to affect opinions.