Seven Years
Photos From Iraq Soliders

Soldiers Are Slaves?!

Courtesy of the Denver Post (sent by Dan F.) comes the most assinine column that I've ever read:

Keep our slaves safe
By Reggie Rivers

Our military is one of the last bastions of slavery in the United States. At the moment, our slaves are stuck in a combat zone, getting killed and maimed, and there's nothing they can do about it except hunker down and pray.

Yes, our slaves signed up of their own free will, but most of them were as misled about their job as the rest of us were about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

And I don't think "slave" is too strong a word to describe someone who is not permitted to quit his job no matter how dangerous it becomes or how much he hates it. For most of us, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and guaranteed that we have the right to withhold our labor. It doesn't protect soldiers...

You can read the whole "piece". Suffice it to say that Reggie should have stuck to football.

You can contact Reggie here and Gary Moore, the Editor of the Denver Post, here.

I sent an email to Mr. Moore. Here's part of it:

    It's especially offensive as you decided to publish it over the Memorial Day weekend when we are honoring the sacrifices of our men and women.

    Yes, they died to allow Mr. Rivers to say whatever he wants to say. Yes, they died to allow you to publish whatever you want to publish.

    And yes, they died to keep us free - and that means that I can choose which newspaper to read. I won't be reading your tactless paper ever again.

Update: Pool of Thought has more (and also sent me the link to the op-ed piece, too). And if you just keep scrolling, he's been having an email debate with Reggie Rivers.

Update: Sgt. Hook and Baldilocks have awesome posts about this letter.