<One of the more peculiar notions to emerge in the last few weeks has been the suggestion by the Left that only those who are - or who have been - in the military have the moral authority to commit the nation to war.
It's a zany, profoundly undemocratic argument and it also sounds like something out of Heinlein's Starship Troopers (a book liberals often criticize as 'fascist' ) a novel in which, if I recall correctly, the only people entitled to full citizenship were those who had completed a period of military service.

I'd be laughing my fluffy red tail off if I thought any of this was serious. I haven't ever been to The Corner at NROnline before (interesting resemblance to this place...); too bad Stuttaford didn't quote or post a link to the original source of his reaction, quoted above. I won't even bother with his faulty memory about 'Federal Service' within the context of Troopers or the Heinleinian Credo in general - that is well covered in the links imbedded in the Instapundit item Phil posted. (I'm going to go back later and download that paper. Imagine, sociological scholarship based on the rants of RAH...)

This liberal raised himself on Heinlein, and all of the other Grand Masters of '50s and '60s science fiction. Those who know me best (some of whom still lurk here from time to time) understand I have a resonably healthy respect for military service in general and combat infantry in particular, especially considering that I have always been a pacifist in my personal life and was unswervingly anti-VN War. What some may find a little quirky is that I gained a noticable portion of that respect from Starship Troopers, and from Joe Haldeman's Viet Nam Era tribute, The Forever War.

"Fascist"? Oh, please... or, maybe I've matured a little since 1969, if not everyone else has.

btw: [1] I've never seen the movie; [2] My copy of Avalon Hill's Starship Troopers S&T game (based on scenarios from the book) recently resurfaced... yep, the old-fashioned kind, with a foldout hex-gridded game board and die-cut carboard tokens. Anybody up for a game?

I'll take the Bugs.

Fox