****Update****

LOL! You have to see this post by Aaron Great job bud!

Well this was definitely the story of the day yesterday and most likely will dominate the blogesphere today. Not only did Mr. Stein go beyond the pale in his op-ed in yesterdays Left Angeles Times, he compounded it by appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program.

Here is one of the highlights:

HH: All right. Now who is your…this is a column about the troops that begins, “I don’t support our troops.” We’ll get to the specifics in a second. But who is your closest family member or friend who is on active duty?

JS: That’s an excellent question. I wouldn’t say I have a very close friend. I would say only acquaintances. No family at all.

HH: Who are your acquaintances?

JS: There was a guy who works at Time, that’s where I worked last, who quit to serve in the military.

HH: What’s his name?

JS: (pause) You know, I’m blanking on his name. But your point is well taken that I don’t have many people that I even know who are in the military.

So he has admittedly written an opinion piece on a subject he knows nothing about. I have to wonder if Mr. Stein would have the courage to say this to a veterans face, or the mother or father of a soldier serving in the military?

I don’t want to rehash everything everyone else has said about this. Instead how about I just give you some links to some of the better points I found.

Let’s start with Matt from Blackfive seeing as he has served as both an enlisted man and an officer. He takes on Stein’s article point by point.

The officers’ Club reminds Stein about just who our enemy Iraq is.

My buddy Pat at Brainster points out just how unaware Stein is.

Michelle Malkin has a nice round up of folks discussing Stein’s article.

I have never been in the military, I have never experienced war first hand but I do have friends and family who have done both. I certainly appreciate the sacrifices members of the military and their families make. Even in peace time they are often separated for months, or over a year at a time. How has this man lived for 30 years without knowing this?

Exactly who did he hang out with in high school and then college and now at work to be so ignorant?

How can he be so unapologetically judgemental about something he admittedly knows nothing about?

How can someone like this be writing for one of the largest and most prestigious (formerly) newspapers in the country?