Poised to go viral: Laptop Warriors From the Sky

From a recent Newark Star-Ledger op/ed piece by Paul Mulshine.

I frequently meet people who claim to have no idea of the difference between traditional conservatism and so-called "neo" conservatism. The other day I came upon an amusing song parody by a right-wing Vietnam vet named George Gould that goes a long way toward explaining the difference. It's titled "The Neocon National Anthem" and it is set to the tune of the Vietnam War-era hit "The Ballad of the Green Berets."

And here are the lyrics as they appear on George Gould's eponymous blog.

The Neocon National Anthem

Laptop warriors from the sky
Fearless men who send others to die
Men whose every word's a lie
The brave men of the A.E.I.

American flags upon their lapel
These are men with wars to sell
One hundred ways to tell a lie
Senior Fellows at the A.E.I.

Trained to lie, by Leo Strauss
Trained to lobby Senate and House
In Iraq some men today will die
Not one of them from the A.E.I.

American flags upon their lapel
These are men with wars to sell
One hundred ways to tell a lie
Senior Fellows at the A.E.I.

Back at home a martini waits
And so he packs his attaché case
He has lied and sold the surge
In his heart this primal urge

Put an American flag on my son's lapel
Give him wars that he can sell
But don't let him go where he could die
Have him join the A.E.I.

[Note: The A.E.I. referred to in the song is the American Enterprise Institute, the leading thinktank for the neocons.]

Read Mulshine's full column. Turns out Mulshine spent time with Barry Sadler, the original writer/singer of "The Ballad of the Green Berets," in Guatemala during the 1980s.

I learned quite a bit about counterinsurgency from [Sadler] and the guys around him, an assortment of self-described mercenaries, Vietnam vets and other worldly types.

These guys had opinions about guerrilla wars formed over more than 20 years. And the primary insight about counterinsurgency was this: Don't fight it.

And if you do fight it, be on the side of the guerrillas.

And Gould gets in a good shot, too.

"We used to say in the Army that the most dangerous thing in the world was a second lieutenant with a map and a compass…. Now the most dangerous thing in the world is a draft dodger with his own army."