Lots of email on this (We have many military readers). Two points. One I should have identified that Reikoff guy as a Huff-poster. Two: i should have been clear when I said there were no frontlines that even if there were, that misses the point as these officers — we’re talking captains, not four star generals — are fighting alongside enlisted men. Wasn’t trying to suggest otherwise. Oh, and wasn’t John Kerry an officer?

Anyway, a typical email:

Jonah, full disclosure, retired, slipper wearing, officer here. Also son and nephew of enlisted men here. Riekhoff is resorting to the cheap kind of class warfare that his ilk always takes refuge in. Problem is, nobody in this country was born an officer. You either did it by coming up the hard way (eg Adm Boorda) or by taking a book or two home in high school (and getting laughed at) while lots of other people were busy being jackasses, and then spending quite a few years establishing your credibility and learning leadership at the hands of some real pros (SNCO’s and Warrants). That being said, nobody in the world has more respect for enlisted folks, or more accountability to them, than their officers, because you cannot do it (the mission) without them. So Riekoff, who does not understand any of this, is merely doing his best Lenin impersonation here: cast Bush as an out of touch reactionary who thinks he is in touch with the “troops” by staging an event in which half the participants are not “troops” but rather some of his hand picked “Tsarist” officers…
Sincerely,
[Name withheld]