MSNBC commentator, Chris Hayes has stirred debate pursuant to comments he made during a memorial weekend telecast in which he expressed reluctance to call fallen soldiers as heroes in part to the view that such overall regard is tantamount to justifying further war.
Said Chris Hayes: ‘I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words “heroes”.
‘I feel… uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.’
‘I don’t want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that’s fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that.
‘But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic.’ He then added: ‘But maybe I’m wrong about that.’
Might be wrong about that because he may have alienated viewers or station bosses? Then again isn’t the hallmark of a true journalist to invoke wonder and regard for what goes in wider cultural dialectics, even if it stokes pain, discord and a sense of disrespect to those who have suffered the fate of being the fallen? Isn’t that what why soldiers go off to fight in the first place? To protect the freedoms of a nation, even those freedoms to assail a point of view that may not rib well especially when expressed on a commemorative date such as Memorial Day?
Of course not everyone feels Mr Hayes’ comments were in good stead. This is what one spokesperson for the Veterans of Foreign Wars had to say:
thedailycaller: ‘If Mr. Hayes feels uncomfortable, I suggest he enlist, go to war, then come home to what he expects is a grateful nation but encounters the opposite. ‘It’s far too easy to cast stones from inexperience.’
And there were conservative commentators who had this to say:
Conservative commentator Warner Todd Huston wrote on blog Wizbang: ‘I’d like to remind you that many of those Neanderthals that you despise so much died for your right to hate them.’
Then there was this comment I came across too that made me wonder as well:
Our Founders (The US) outlined a defensive Nation very much in line with the Swiss model. Flush with testosterone from ousting the British, it only took 30 years for us to toss that aside & begin 237 years of aggression. Oddly, our 1st effort was to pick up the ousted Shah of Persia (now Iran) in Tripoli & force him back on the throne. We have not had one day of peace since then. And aside from setting up the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor, show me one country that has attacked us? Chris Hayes is correct. The 18 year old kids that died or returned injured while serving in our Military did not do so to protect us from anything. They did so to service the needs of Haliburton, Lockheed Martin, Exxon and the rest of our Big Business Welfare Queens. How is that heroic? It’s shameful that we, the citizens accept it, allow it and applaud it. Then the ‘heros’ return to a country that casts them aside and refuses to treat their injuries? Shove the flag waving, fix the attitude.
via dailymail.co.uk
