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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Well played, Allahpundit

Holy crap.

Okay, so let me set the scene for you. Allahpundit, one of the resident bloggers on HotAir, posted a little bit on the Navy SEALs that have (as is their right) called for a court-martial into their alleged busting of some jihadist's lip. That's right, they're in the dock for the charge of having given a military-murdering Muslim terrorist a fat lip. Or so said jihadist claims.

I know, you all thinking WTF? I agree, I agree. Nothing controversial about that, really. But here's what happened. AP says, hey, these guys will probably escape with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. And it's a good thing, he says, because then other troops will be reminded not to do anything more seriously stupid that can be used to politicise the issue.

Ooh, that got on the hackles of Uncle Jumbo at Blackfive, and he's unleashed several cans of whoopass on AP. AP links to him, and well, next thing you know, ~300-400 comments everywhere.

Okay, here's the thing.

1. AP's paid to do this sort of thing. Get traffic for HA, I mean. I don't know if he set out deliberately to light a fire under some milblogger somewhere, but you can't blame him for wanting to capitalise on the reaction. See, this sort of thing is unlikely to really cause any major damage amongst the VRWC-type blogger community, but for at least a day or two, it will get said community seriously engaged. Engagement means comments. Comments mean traffic. Traffic means $$$.

2. And really, Uncle Jimbo went waaaaaayyyy out of his normal route to beat up on AP. I mean, Uncle Jimbo got het up over, afaik, three or four words of AP's entire post. That, and the tone which suggests AP believes they did.

Let's be honest. Would any of us care if they did, on a personal level? Not me, that's for sure. I'd be surprised it was only a fat lip. I'm sure SEALs could come up with creatively painful ways in which a person could slip, trip, fall, or otherwise hurt himself without any visible or evident marks anywhere - which leads me to think they probably didn't do it.

Now, AP probably didn't know that there's no such thing as a wrist slap in the spec ops community once it reaches court-martial level. Hell, *I* didn't know that either, until Uncle Jimbo, ah, enlightened the rest of us non-military types. Which is itself deserving of a rant. I mean, wtf? WTF!!!??? Isn't the whole idea of a court or a tribunal or whatever it's called to CLEAR YOU OF WRONGDOING IF YOU'RE FUCKING INNOCENT!!!??? So you're telling me some REMF looks over these guys' records and goes, "Hmm, says here they were court-martialled, but they were cleared of all charges and specifications, and in fact the President of the Court is fully convinced they didn't do anything, but we're gonna deep-six their careers anyway and give them administrative discharges"? Doesn't that suggest there is something seriously FUCKED-UP about the process?

Seriously. Who. In. Hell. is gonna know THAT? Sure as hell no actively serving squid's gonna blab to a well-known blogger with ties to Michelle Malkin (and hence Fox) and lose their jobs over this, right? Is AP supposed to go hunt up retired squids to get the real deal from them, when he didn't even know that apparently the Quintessons are in charge of military justice - at least as it pertains to actual members of the 'friendly' force?

3. And the level of insanity on display is truly amazing. It's not DKos level, nowhere near that, but for the right-wing blogosphere, it's practically a full moon. Guys, when you compare AP to LGF, you instantly make yourselves and your arguments irrelevant. AP and CJ cannot even be classified as the same species. AP's still nominally Republican, he can still laugh at himself and at others, and he has not afaik lowered the banhammer in a massive way, nor has he himself started shooting out hate-filled and maniac posts on a regular and frequent basis.

He made one post, and no doubt, he screwed up somewhat. And you're crucifying him over it. Mind you, I understand if you've been storing up a fair amount of negative feelings towards AP; but he's been at it for ages and I'm not about to let him get under my skin.

And really, if AP was the purple RINO who's out to sink the right wing, you're making it real easy for him to claim victory. Instead of the story being the shameful way in which the current Navy and Administration is treating its elite military units sent to do the dangerous and dirty work, it's now on how AP's pissing everyone off. Well done, gentlemen, what a way to take the spotlight off the true travesty.

At the end of the day, AP's just doing his job. Maybe a little more effectively than he thought, but the mark of a good businessman is the ability to take control and ride serendipity. All the way to the bank.

Good job, Allahpundit.

Now get back to work.