more reaction "shocks"

More on the Shock Troops controversy. On the one hand, it's frustrating to go through the hyper-analysis exercise every time the right wing hears something it doesn't like (see Crooked Timber's "One Endless Rathergate", and Jon Swift's comprehensive roundup of winger crybabiness).

On another hand, such controversies occasion really interesting bits of writing, like this one from a semiotics professor who sees in "Thomas"s prose style a poseur type of wanna-be bad boy who evidently infests MFA programs.

And some of the comments on threads like these are just gold. It's an amazing new world when there is so much expertise on so many subjects available for exchange.

One former military guy expresses what's been my take all along (without the real-world cred to back it up, but hey, I read a lot):

Having spent 22 years in the Army, I can say with some emphasis that there is almost nothing that most privates, and NOTHING that some privates, won't do, including incredibly stupid, hitting-self-in-head-with-hammer type of things. So the idea that this stuff didn't happen because "they wouldn't do it"? don't make me laugh.

And remember, you're talking about a bunch of 19-year-old guys with guns in a pretty much broken down Third World country. If your squad leader/PSG/1SG are weak, bored, stupid or distracted? Let the fun begin!