The 101st Fighting Keyboarders get recognition

Brevity is the soul of wit

The Selective Service System sucked hundreds of young men from my hometown into the armed forces during the Vietnam war. They went directly from the diploma lines at high school commencement to the front lines overseas. I was one of the lucky ones, being old enough to be among the last to receive a student deferment for college, yet young enough not to graduate before the draft was suspended. That's the sort of exquisite timing you needed in those days if you didn't have the string-pulling connections of George W. Bush (who scuttled into the Air Force reserve for a notoriously truncated period of service) or Dick Cheney (who famously had “other priorities”).

Despite their limited experience, Bush and Cheney have never hesitated to use the military option, as the nation has learned to its regret during the continuing Iraq misadventure. The administration has been supported and abetted in its blood-and-guts foreign policy by a hearty band of blogging brothers, collectively known to many as “The 101st Fighting Keyboarders.” Most of them understand that this is a term of derision, although some have attempted to turn it into a badge of honor. It's difficult to get respect when you're a chickenhawk, patriotically warblogging in favor of any conflict that doesn't risk your own precious skin. You'd think it would be easier during a time when the federal administration is filthy with chickenhawks, but no. How unfair!

At long last, however, the 101st Fighting Keyboarders have received the national recognition they deserve. Guy & Rodd's Brevity comic strip for May 20, 2006:


Now you may be wondering, how can we be sure that the individual depicted in the cartoon is representative of the heroic chickenhawk keyboarders? Well, you have a point. The doughy schlub in shorts and undershirt bears all the stigmata of the basement-living, Bush-loving, keyboard pounders, but Guy & Rodd do not specifically identify him. He could be a representative of the ill-fated Pajamas Media group.

On the other hand, what's the difference?

One more tribute

Lest we forget, don't miss The Battle Hymn of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, a soul-stirring anthem.