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1) Its not about "there being christians" in the military, thats a total straw man. Its about the most lethal branch of the service being dominated by those who

1) Its not about "there being christians" in the military, thats a total straw man. Its about the most lethal branch of the service being dominated by those who see their conduct as the prosecution of a religious war. How is this difficult? 2) I never said that "we should ignore what a journalist says in public" I was contrasting a few comments that are pretty uncontroversial to anyone with domain knowledge to a deeply reported piece and treating those comments as if they were in any way determinative of his worldview, or that to quote tptacek "he's suffered a precipitous decline" because he notes the dominance of a radical theocratic bent among JSOC. How have ya'll spent more than half a dozen comments now with out reckoning with any of the pieces I've linked? Seriously. I've linked a number of pieces now backing up what Hersh has said. Aren't you a journalist? Even a professor of journalism?

tptacek 8y ago
First, you're misrepresenting my argument. Hersh's decline isn't due to his supposed JSOC Catholic conspiracy; it's due largely to the UBL story. Second, you're sugarcoating Hersh's argument about JSOC/USSOCOM. If all Hersh had said was that there were an unusual and disquieting number of fundamentalist Christians in the high ranks of SOCOM, few people would bat an eyelash. But he didn't say that. He said that USSOCOM was run by a secret conspiracy of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. He is, if not 100%, then at least 96.3% into Umberto Eco territory here. Check back in another 5-10 years (maybe after his Cheney book is published?) and we'll see if he hasn't made it all the way to 23 Skidoo.
- dtornabene 8y ago
  No, he didn't, and you're misrepresenting what he said and also completely ignoring everything I've linked. I'm not really sure what to make of that at this point. Is it intentional? I feel that after maybe 10 comments of you completely side stepping all of the other links I've posted its fair to wonder if you're genuinely just trolling, rules be damned. Where's the "secret conspiracy" part? And for someone who believes this, as you say he does, why is it only three comments in a speech in Doha? Why is it not a piece that he worked up and published? Because he's referring to a well understood phenomena thats been covered by others and also because he was talking about this in the context of anti-muslim bigotry. Do you have an answer for that? Seriously Thomas, do you have an answer for "this was a few comments in the context of the incredible level of prejudice on display from military and political leaders in the heat of the beginning of the War on Terror"? I don't think you do, because it would undermine your narrative. Also, the idea that Barton Gellman brought down Cheney with a book is .... strange. Love to see a cite on that one.

tptacek 8y ago

First, you're misrepresenting my argument. Hersh's decline isn't due to his supposed JSOC Catholic conspiracy; it's due largely to the UBL story. Second, you're sugarcoating Hersh's argument about JSOC/USSOCOM. If all Hersh had said was that there were an unusual and disquieting number of fundamentalist Christians in the high ranks of SOCOM, few people would bat an eyelash. But he didn't say that. He said that USSOCOM was run by a secret conspiracy of Opus Dei and the Knights of Malta. He is, if not 100%, then at least 96.3% into Umberto Eco territory here. Check back in another 5-10 years (maybe after his Cheney book is published?) and we'll see if he hasn't made it all the way to 23 Skidoo.

dtornabene 8y ago
No, he didn't, and you're misrepresenting what he said and also completely ignoring everything I've linked. I'm not really sure what to make of that at this point. Is it intentional? I feel that after maybe 10 comments of you completely side stepping all of the other links I've posted its fair to wonder if you're genuinely just trolling, rules be damned. Where's the "secret conspiracy" part? And for someone who believes this, as you say he does, why is it only three comments in a speech in Doha? Why is it not a piece that he worked up and published? Because he's referring to a well understood phenomena thats been covered by others and also because he was talking about this in the context of anti-muslim bigotry. Do you have an answer for that? Seriously Thomas, do you have an answer for "this was a few comments in the context of the incredible level of prejudice on display from military and political leaders in the heat of the beginning of the War on Terror"? I don't think you do, because it would undermine your narrative. Also, the idea that Barton Gellman brought down Cheney with a book is .... strange. Love to see a cite on that one.