Soljers ar stoopid.

Support the troops -- well, OK, maybe not the smart ones:

Montana conservative attacks fallen soldier over op-ed.

Earlier this week, Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray, who recently co-wrote a New York Times op-ed critical of the Iraq debate, were killed in a vehicle accident in Western Baghdad. The two fallen soldiers have since been hailed for serving their country and speaking out on Iraq. But one former conservative state Senator in Sgt. Gray’s home state of Montana, Dave Rye, has chosen to attack him for the op-ed, claiming he and his fellow soldiers weren’t intelligent enough to write it on their own:

Pardon my skepticism, and certainly no disrespect for the dead Montana soldier, but in my time in the Army I never heard such a word as “recalcitrant” escape the lips of any Staff Sergeant. I doubt if it’s spoken all that much in Ismay, either. The soldiers had the help and probably the encouragement of a writer with an agenda, from a newspaper which has always had one. Its continually declining circulation now mainly consists of those who want desperately to consider themselves sophisticated as well as compassionate, even if that means always branding the U.S. as the chief villain on the world stage—in fact, especially if it does.

In a followup, Rye admitted that he might have been a bit over the top, stating, "Well, yes, I might have phrased that more diplomatically. Luckily, though, they're dead now so it's not really an issue anymore, is it?"

In a rapid disavowal of Rye's tasteless and offensive comments, his GOP colleagues immediately condemned Sen. John Kerry for allegedly suggesting the troops were dumb.