Gutless

Media Matters senior fellow Eric Boehlert made news this week by immensely insulting our Navy SEALs, saying that they "don't have guts" if they won't admit they're "anti-Obama." This is coming from someone who has his job solely because those SEALs and the rest of our military risk everything to protect this country and the freedoms we enjoy in it. 

President Obama has yet to condemn Eric Boehlert's disrespectful comments; this is hardly shocking, though, since when Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011 by our SEALs, President Obama stepped in and tried to claim  most of the credit. An unidentified current SEAL told Newsmax: 

"Obama wasn’t in the field, at risk, carrying a gun. As president, at every turn, he should be thanking the guys who put their lives on the line to do this. He does so in his official speeches because his speechwriters are smart.  But the more he tries to take the credit for it, the more the ground operators are saying, "Come on, man!"  It really didn’t matter who was president. At the end of the day, they were going to go."

If we're giving credit all around, a good piece of it should have gone to President Bush, who laid much of the groundwork that opened the door to our opportunity to kill bin Laden. However, all of the credit should go to the SEALs who put their lives on the line in this situation and every other in order to keep this nation safe. Instead of honoring our military's action, President Obama politicized it  and used it for his own re-election efforts. Whether or not Mitt Romney would have made the same decision as President Obama is beside the point-- the point is that our Commander-in-Chief is degrading the work done by our SEALs in order to further his own career. Yes, he thanked them for their act of service to our country; but the fact that he made a political ad about it, promoting himself rather than our military, is beneath the level of President of the United States.

What brought this issue up this week was the fact that Eric Boehlert decided to show his true feelings regarding our SEALs-- from behind a keyboard-- by posting this to Twitter:    #kindalame  former Navy SEALs don't have guts to admit they're running a GOP, anti-Obama campaign; nyti.ms/N2nYYj

The link at the end of his tweet is one claiming that ex-officers from the CIA and military are "anti-Obama" for suspecting he might have leaked national security secrets regarding the bin Laden raid to further his personal agenda. It's not like President Obama hasn't given these ex-officers evidence to imply he might stoop to that level: From insulting the Israeli Prime Minister  when he thought his mic was muted to telling the Russian President he would be "more flexible"  after the election to revealing Israel's secret plans  to prevent a nuclear Iran, this President is anything but solid on foreign policy. 

After much backlash from people defending our military, Boehlert sent two tweets to explain his comment.  "I have nothing but respect for ALL Navy Seals and those who serve this country. To imply otherwise is irresponsible. (1/ 2)  I never used the word “gutless.” Right-wing media is doing what it does best – mindless fabrication and distortion. (2/2)"

Still no apology. Still no remorse for directly insulting the Navy SEALs who enable him to criticize them from behind a keyboard.   Apparently "don't have guts" and "gutless" mean different things and we are completely irrational for daring to suggest they're similar.  Apparently it's "mindless fabrication and distortion" to defend our SEALs from attacks by those who seemingly fail to realize what a blessing they are.

Eric Boehlert and I are at different levels of the same field-- our main source of activism comes from behind a computer screen. Without our SEALs and the rest of our military, this freedom of the press and freedom to speak our minds wouldn't be possible. Instead of thanking and supporting them, Eric Boehlert uses the freedom they've protected to take cheap shots at them. It disgusts me when people take that freedom for granted and abuse it. These SEALs have lost their lives; they've watched close friends die on the battlefield; they've given up comfortable lives at home in exchange for difficult lives defending their country. Our military deserves our full and unwavering support in every area, regardless of who agrees with us. 

I'll never understand how people can knowingly insult our military. It disgusts me that our military isn't appreciated at its full value; rather, it is disrespected and treated as if they should serve us, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Mr. Boehlert, if you'd be willing to write a piece apologizing for your comments, I'd be more than glad to publish it on my website.   Our military risks too much and pays too high a price for us to pick and choose when to support them. If you don't stand behind our military, go stand in front of them and we'll see who's really gutless.