Chapomatic

So. Matt Sanchez. He’s got a column in Salon that’s reprinted on his blog, and is getting an additional fifteen minutes of fame the hard way, as it were.

I’d have more to say about it but CDR Salamander has said it better. (Jeff Goldstein also has trenchant observations, with the return of the lying rooster and a link roundup.) Bottom line for me: What Sanchez wrote that got all the attention still holds, and we don’t care much about Hidden Pasts like the one dredged up as much as we do the implied attack on a shipmate.

I think this is another case of folks not understanding how the military relates to itself. Howard Veit comments that nobody really cared when they were fighting in Korea, and that’s pretty much the dominant thought. Check out Blackfive, for instance. When a guy runs for office who was a vet, we don’t worship his Sacred Veteran Status; he gets a listen, and if we think he’s wrong we don’t ostracize him–we just don’t vote for him or call him on it. In the case of Iraq vet turned candidate Paul Hackett, there was another attack when Hackett got thrown under the bus by his own party, but that’s another story. (I readily grant that Murtha’s a completely different kettle of fish.) Maybe next week we’ll find out something really icky about Sanchez, but until that happens the blackmail–and the intended chilling effect for anyone else who Wanders Off The Accepted Reservation–failed to have the impact the outers intended. We military tend to turn our backs on our own for different situations. And in any case, I’ve noticed over the years that the people who are loudest about their prudery are most likely to be caught in sad and sordid situations, so better to have the occasional film star hanging around opining.

Military folks are human, so there are all sorts of strange people, and if the guy followed the rules, who cares? I worry more about the guy I met by email one day who got a Purple Heart, severe damage physically, and he feels worse that he felt like he let his unit down because he came out after he got discharged. Damn shame, because he’s got nothing to feel bad about–maybe it’s sublimated survivor’s guilt, or whatever. Those trying so hard to advance Teh Rights Of Teh Ghey don’t help that guy out very much in their zeal to follow a narrow ideology instead of the rights they say they want.