The funniest (and again, saddest) thing about the Beauchamp nonsense is that despite the hysterical cries that he is HURTING THE TROOPS AND LIVES ARE AT STAKE, no one really had read the TNR piece before the outrage pimps started linking it massively. I hadn’t read ‘Shock Troops’ until it was linked repeatedly by the usual suspects and made it to memeorandum.com As I stated yesterday, the terrorists and the insurgents are not reading TNR. They are not going to justify their next IED, their next suicide bomb, their next sniping of a Baghdad patrol, their next, well, whatever, on the tales offered by Beauchamp:
And, as I have stated before, I don’t know if the things he wrote (Beauchamp) are true, and I really don’t care. What I find disgusting is the desperate attempts to prove that these piddling things did not or could not happen, when we all have documented proof that FAR WORSE things have happened. I mean, fucking seriuosly:
– A GI ran over a dog? OMG NO. OUTRAGE, SLANDER! COULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.
– A GI played with skeletal remains in a GY? OMG, NO WAI! NEVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED- WHY DO YOU HATE THE TROOPS.
– GI’s made fun of a disfigured woman? OMG, IMPOSSIBLE.I mean, seriously, folks. Get a fucking grip.
The funniest thing (saddest) about this whole affair is that but for the outrage noise machine in the right wing blogosphere, no one would have even known what this guy wrote. I sure as hell didn’t until the professional idiots started their link circle jerk and it made it to memeorandum.com. But now, you all have worked yourself into such a lather it is only a matter of time before Howard Kurtz and someone else pick the story up and run with it- and it gets national and international attention. BRAVO. Way to smear the troops, knuckleheads.
Congrats- I even nailed who would pick it up. Howard Kurtz in the WaPo today:
The New Republic’s anonymous “Baghdad Diarist” identified himself yesterday as Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private in Iraq, and disputed as “maddening” accusations that he had invented his accounts of cruelty by American soldiers.
The magazine’s editor, Franklin Foer, disclosed in an interview that Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is “part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer.” Foer also said Beauchamp “has put himself in significant jeopardy” and “lost his lifeline to the rest of the world” because military officials have taken away his laptop, cellphone and e-mail privileges.
And, according to Memeorandum, guess who is linking this to make sure it receives MORE exposure-
NRO
Hugh Hewitt
The Dumbest Person on the Planet (aka Dan Riehl)
Red State
The Confederate Yankee (** Update *** Memeorandum errantly linked Confederate Yankee to this. CY does have startling news about how BEAUCHAMP HAS DESTROYED NATIONAL SECURITY AND HIS TROUBLES ARE JUST BEGINNING! HANG HIM, HANG HIM FROM THE NECK!)
It is a safe bet that by the end of the day, there will be literally a dozen links from Malkin. Now, a minor story has made a major news outlet, and hopefully the wingnuts can push this until CNN International Edition carries it. Well played, nutters.
At this point it isn’t so much that these outrage pimps are stupid, it is that they are stupid and predictable.