One would have the thought the heyday of the leftist infatuation for dictatorships was yesterday. Count me surprised.

A commonly used rhetorical device on the Left is to impugn those who comment on the Iraq war if they have not served in the armed forces. For example

Let’s be clear, folks.

There is no “shelf life” for those who have served in Iraq. Hobbs attempt to discredit these captains simply because they havent served in iraq n 2007 is laughable at best, and coming from someone like Hobbs, who has NEVER served in iraq, ridiculous.

Do things change on the ground in Iraq? Yes. But the experience and first hand knowledge these captains bring from their tours in Iraq,, even if they were pre 2007, is far beyond anything that the armchair, chickenhawk, not-serving-now-and -never- did -serve rowd can hope to offer.

I was attacked in the same vein by the same individual last week. It’s certainly effective in reducing the number of the opposition. This means, of course, that because only 26 million Americans alive today currently serve or have served, that 274 million Americans (minors included) cannot have an opinion on matters of war. Add to that past Democrat attempts to invalidate the votes of those currently serving, and you have a nice, rhetorically unopposed sample. It’s not quite as bad as parading toddlers around to promote the S-CHIP expansion, then acting indignant about it, but it’s close.

Well, that’s just silly.

The de facto result of such tactics would be complete military control over military affairs. If civilians are deemed incompetent to exercise judgment regarding military matters, the military is left to its own devices. This is a dangerous, anti-Constitutional position to take. Amusingly enough, it’s apparently patriotic to critique the administration in order to oppose it, but to support the military for its stated mission is somehow out-of-bounds. Unless you’ve served. Circular, isn’t it?

To their moral credit, I doubt those who have adopted the presupposition have thought it through this much. It’s more irritating and disingenuous than anything, and not so much else.