GOP Senators Challenge Washington Post

Major blowback on the William Arkin blogpost. Nice to see three of my favorite U.S. senators throwing down the gauntlet.

Many Americans have concerns about the war in Iraq. Yet we are confident that almost every American would disagree with Arkin's reference to our country's troops as "a mercenary force." We think they would share our disgust with Mr. Arkin's contention that "through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform."

Recently, the New York Times admonished one of its reporters, Michael Gordon, for expressing a personal opinion about the war--that the President's plan for a surge of forces in iraq may "be worth it." We wonder if the Post will have the same reaction to one of their columnists calling our nation's volunteer soldiers "a mercenary force?"

Clearly, every American has the right to express his or her personal opinion on the war and Mr. Arkin's column was an opinion piece. But at a time when thousands of our soldiers have given their lives in Iraq, it is countrary to your own standards that a representative of your publication would malign our troops in such a vicious and insulting manner.

We would be curious to know who at the Post, if anyone, was the editor of such a piece--and what standards of conduct Mr. Arkin and other columnists are held to, if any.

It seems his pathetic response today had disappeared, but it's still there as of this writing. Meanwhile, Blackfive lets loose, with more here and here.