It's hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally repugnant

[CatWoman]

that those who call for war must serve.............

Yellow Elephant Anthony Mantova: It's hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally repugnant that those who call for war must serve


Yellow Elephant Anthony Mantova, National Field Director of the Leadership Institute, says that it's "hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally repugnant that those who call for war must serve."

His hometown paper, the Eureka Reporter, published his columns supporting the Global War on Terrorism, and invading Iran, as recently as last year.

To its credit, the Eureka Reporter just published real American Rob Ash's column Asking The Question: Is Mantova willing to serve in the wars he supports? Money quotes:

Why doesn’t he sign up?

Mantova gave me unconvincing answers. He speculated how his enlistment might undermine civilian control of the military.

He compared himself favorably to the ancient Roman politician Cato the Elder, Winston Churchill and Socrates. Clearly, Mantova has a very high opinion of his intellectual abilities.

Finally, Mantova demeaned all service members and veterans with his “hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally-repugnant” comments and dismissed the very notion of military service. He treated a deadly serious question as if it were a joke.

You can bet Mantova will continue to “stay the course” — the one farthest away from the recruitment office.

He’s much safer cheering on the war from his cushy job at the nonprofit foundation and polishing his resume than he would be fighting those nasty terrorists.

It's time for all real Americans to encourage Anthony Mantova to Be A Man! Enlist! Click here.

http://operationyellowelephant.blogspot.com/2006/08/yellow-elephant-anthony-mantova-its.html

[warrens]

1. Ooooooo, I hate thugs like that

Little chickenshit, arrogant creeps. They spell REPUKE.

[baldguy]

2. The colloquial expression is "having skin in the game"

You're less likely to advocate positions that put lives in danger if yours is put in danger as well.

[elehhhhna]

31. In TX we call it "Knowing wtf you're talking about"

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Better that a nitwit like that doesn't serve. He would be a hazard

to himself and the others around him. They don't need/want idiots in the military, it's too dangerous. Same can be said about the bush twins.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. True enough. Odds are, the troops would frag him.

:nuke:

[Ganja Ninja]

6. He could always work in bomb disposal.

That weeds out the incompetents real quick.

[bluerum]

4. Chickenhawks. Our country is being run by chickenhawks.

No wonder everything is so effed up.

[klook]

7. I know some hillbillies

who'd love to give this lily-livered chickenhawk the ass-whuppin' he deserves.

[Individualist]

16. I'm one of them

[klook]

25. Here you go!

Go ahead - open it up!

[Tom Joad]

34. yeah, all we'd have to do is have a very straight talk with this man

we'd set him straight.

[Ioo]

8. DOne....

I hate COWARDS!

[MADem]

9. STUPID stupid FUCKER....Winston Churchill SERVED!!!!!!!!!

What a flaming MORON!!!! Way ta go, pal...use as an example someone who put on the uniform to justify your not doing the same. Winnie was indifferent in the job, but he did DO it, unlike this putz.

DUMB, DUMB, yes....these rightwing jerks are DUMB!!!!!!!

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1953/churchill-bio.html
http://www.churchillbooks.com.nyud.net:8090/images/10164.jpg

[petronius]

12. So did Socrates and Cato the Elder, for that matter

This chickenhawk is 0 for 3 in his self-justifying examples...

[MADem]

20. I didn't even bother to go that far back! But point taken!

I mean hell, anyone who is AWARE of WW2 (we know kids sleep through ancient history, but WW2 has PICTURES!) knows about Winnie, if they stay awake through even half the class....

[BOSSHOG]

10. Is Mantova just a tad defensive?

limbaugh on occasion gets all pissy about the subject. Cowardly bastards, ignorant of the military and how it works or the sacrifice involved, constantly calling for more death and destruction. Try it boys, it'll make liberals out of you. And they have to tell the world what great patriots they are. I got more patriotism in my combat zone veteran left nut then all the chickenhawks in America have combined.

[mcscajun]

21. It's the only defense OR offense he is capable of.

He really WOULD get fragged if he was leading anyone.

More power to you, BOSSHOG!

[demnan]

11. Hillbilly is sort of a word like Maccaca

Don't you think?

[Lowell]

15. Today they call themselves

Apalachian-Americans.

[Individualist]

17. No I don't

My user name isn't notsodumbAppalachian-American. There are many hillbillies who aren't ignorant.

[Lowell]

23. Whoa! Notsodumbhillbilly! No insult intended!

I was corrected last weekend by one of my hillbilly cousins from North Carolina. She referred to herself, tongue in cheek, as an Apalachian-American. I think and so does she that this whole era of policital correctness is a crock. It was not meant as an insult.

[datasuspect]

39. or "sons of the soil"

[lonestarnot]

13. What terrorists?

[11 Bravo]

14. God, I despise Mantova and others of his ilk.

This prick needs to spend just ONE afternoon policing a battlefield (arms and legs in one pile, heads and torsos in another) and then let him rhapsodize to me about the glories of war. As we used to say in the field, "War is Hell, but COMBAT is a motherfucker."

[BurtWorm]

18. Churchill was a veteran. Cato and Socrates killed themselves.

:think:

[mcscajun]

19. Cato the Elder served in the military, so did Churchill.

Socrates? Yes, even Socrates. He was also a philospher, which Mantova clearly is not. He could even the score by taking some hemlock, though. :evilgrin:

In the ancient era, you could hardly be called a leader of anything, even so small as a tribe or clan, without the will to fight to protect it. Kings would personally lead troops into battle, or they could hardly BE Kings. Those who have personally known the horror and sacrifice of war are those most effective at avoiding war, yet also most effective in preparing for it if inevitable, and exhorting others to fight in the spirit of shared sacrifice. Churchill would disdain this man; Patton would slap him.

Mantova (whom I'd never even heard of before today) hasn't a thimble's worth of character, courage, or wisdom compared to any of these men. All he's got is an overarching sense of self, a disdain of the common people, and a yellow streak that runs both down and across his back. He's a coward, a bully, and an egoist.

Where's that link? I gotta add my name.

On edit: correcting my comment on Socrates.

[elehhhhna]

32. Well, hell! In that case he also resembles Alexander the Great,

Napoleon Bonaparte, and Generals Patton and Eisenhower!

[MADem]

22. Get a load of the little weaselly pissant!!!

Wrapped in the FLAG, no less!!!




The soft little porker looks like he'd need to do a little running, sit ups and push ups to prepare himself for even day one of Boot Camp...

[bvar22]

29. Just another YELLOW Republican ChickenHawk!

[roguevalley]

35. check out a poster named Voice of Reason:

http://politicalities.typepad.com/

[Hubert Flottz]

24. "It's hillbilly, intellectually vacant and morally repugnant"

That's about 99.99% of Bush'a base!

[genie_weenie]

26. Duh! Enlisting and fighting is for the lesser clases.

some people in american have been *trained* for leadership roles it would be a terrible tragedy if they were forced to serve the role of regular bullet sponge (or IED shrapnel)...

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[starroute]

28. That would be Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute

The one of which both Karl Rove and Jeff Gannon are proud alumni.

The well-known school for right-wing dirty tricksters.

Yep, that's about right.

[TygrBright]

30. Please take this ignorant sh*thead to the Cumberlands...

...in Kentucky and dump him out up the back of some holler to make his own way home.

Betcha he never makes it.

speculatively,
Bright

[Tom Joad]

33. Hillbilly? Why is he using that slur?!? Why i have half a mind to

get Muley and my Pa and some other folks i know to pay him a special visit. Folks like him that tractored us out of our homes with the Cats... then got busy destroying homes in the Middle East, from Gaza to the West Bank, to Lebanon to Iraq... and now he wants to do the same to Iran --by sending some poor young folks to do the dirty work?! Damn it all, he ain't nothin but a fool.

[YOY]

36. Um, just how would posing such a question be 'intellectually vacant'?

I'd like to see his counter arguement as opposed to a one sentence retort.

[opihimoimoi]

37. Even Mongo of BS was drafted and served

[Donald Ian Rankin]

38. He's basically right,

Although I'm not sure what "Hillbilly" means in this context.

Arguing that those who vote for war must serve is exactly morally equivalent to the argument (widely advanced at the time by conservatives) that those who opposed the war should be made to go and live in Saddam's Iraq.

The only way one could support such a position would be if you were to apply that logic universally, and claim that anyone who supported any action which would improve things for many people but have costs for some should be made to bear those costs themselves; if you think of some examples you'll soon see that that's absurd.

While the invasion of Iraq was clearly a bad thing, that is neither here nor there to the discussion of whether those who thing it was a good thing, that made the world a better place for other people (and despite some paranoid ramblings to the contrary, that *is* why most people who support the war do so), should be conscripted.

[kiki]

40. Respectfully disagree...

People who support the war say "The war is a good thing". Nobody who opposed the war ever said "Saddam's Iraq is a good thing" - in fact, we said "Saddam's Iraq is a bad thing, but this war will make it worse". And in the biggest shocker since the revelation that bears shit in the woods, we were 1,000% RIGHT.

These aren't just people who agree with the war, they are cheerleaders with a public forum. On a personal level, the level of the individual, it's obvious to anyone with a soul that calling for others to undertake an extremely dangerous activity for reasons that ultimately benefit you (and of course, as you're supporting a bullshit war of aggression, using a constant stream of lies and bigoted invective to do so), yet refusing point blank to go within 2,000 miles of that activity yourself, makes you a cowardly piece of shit.