Charlie Pierce’s friend, Col. Robert Bateman:
This is too much. We have Tea Party political activists shooting cops from behind, in the head, then covering their dead bodies with the Tea Party “Gadsden” flag and shouting, “The Revolution begins now!”
No. I am coming home. I need to be there and be part of the solution. Moms Demand Action is getting some traction, but they can use the lean-in of a few U.S. Army Airborne Infantry Rangers. I am only sorry that I did not stand up to this threat to our nation before. I am sorry. I was busy.
I have been overseas in Afghanistan and in NATO nations for half a decade while the insanity of the National Rifle Association expanded and exploded, and the NRA became, essentially, the tool of death in the United States. They made mass killings normal.
Well done, NRA. But this shit is too much.
Constant cop-killing, by people who echo the NRA talking points and the conspiracy theories of the Internet wackos.
So I will come home, and perhaps some of those 3,000 nutjobs who sent me hatemail might want to meet up, because I am more than fricking willing, you whining, little boy-toys who need guns. So many of you have threatened me that I am literally booked, but any of you who feel you have been left out, go ahead. Book a date. You bring your gun to try and convince me that you are not a complete and total idiot, and if you bring a gun, let us see which tool works best.
Wimps need guns. Come and get me.
Sorry Col. Bateman, your heart night be in the right place but your brain is in neutral. We are trying Not to start a war here. So calling out 3000 people for a gun battle isn’t helpful. Anyway ‘your’ military has been part of our problem for far to long. You all volunteered to go kill people in some foreign country….why? If you really want to do something to help the “cause” then get rid of all of your guns, denounce military adventurism and the violence it creates and then go after the NRA……….peacefully. What we don’t need is one more person with a gun and a bad attitude running around.
I’m, you may not know who Bateman is.
He’s a military historian who writes often (and superbly) for Charlie Pierce’s blog.
A very enlightened guy.
I’d give him the benefit of the doubt on this.
Im: In addition to Bateman being a military historian (on the US Civil War, in particular), he has indicated publicly (I read it in his column a few weeks back) that he does not own a firearm. From my perspective, this makes him a Serious Badass who doesn’t need anything but his wits to take on the whackjob teabagger / patriot movement types.
To you both: Bateman is a Colonel. You don’t get to be a Colonel in the military unless you’re one special kind of asshole. Believe me I’ve seen it from the inside. Has he had an epiphany of some sort? Not unless all of that expensive training was a total failure. That’s not possible. Does Mr. Robot know a lot of shit about military history? He’d better because that’s his job. Let me say this one more time. We——the Left——-are not trying to start a war. Unless the good Colonel is a Leftist, and clearly he isn’t, then what he’s up to is anybody’s guess. I don’t trust warmongers.