This is Joel Stein's take on our troops (LA Times):

Warriors and wusses
I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

AND it gets worse

There is a bright spot - and it's Hugh Hewitt's response, in part:

These are not illegal opinions, of course, but they are deeply repulsive ones, and I don't believe the Los Angeles Times ought to have run this column. At a minimum, Stein's editor, Andres Martinez, who worked with Stein on the piece last night should have expressed some demands for reporting or distinction or at a minimum cautions about what Stein wrote. I questioned Stein closely on this point, and Martinez expressed no substantive views on the column at all.

I also asked Stein if a reader would be justified in cancelling his or her subscription to the Los Angeles Times on the basis of the column. He admitted that while he hoped that a single column on the op-ed page wouldn't rigger such a reaction that he could certainly understand people doing so.

Hugh also has a follow-up here.

"Deeply repulsive" is right, and I'm not going to reiterate my position on the anti-war crowd other than to say that this type of reprehensible tripe is just that - but it's not at all surprising.

So read both posts, and if you feel so moved, let the LA Times know what you think. My comment is already there.


UPDATE - Others Posting:
RIP Joel Stein's career- Kudos Hugh Hewitt (BlackFive)
Laughing at Joel Stein and Hugh Hewitt vs. Joel Stein - No Contest (Michelle Malkin)
Punkin' Joel Stein (Neptunus Lex)
Meeting and Greeting the Planes in Maine (Mudville Gazette)
A Second: (Grim's Hall)
Way Over the Top (Power Line)
Ye Gods (Villanous Company)
Joeling - The Radio Equivalent of Fisking (Aaron's CC)
Of Warriors and wusses (Small Town Veteran)
Radio Blogger
Dumb and Dumber (Mark in Mexico)
Joel Stein VERSUS the USA Military (My Newz 'n Ideas)
Warriors and Wusses Fisking Roundup (Soldiers' Angels Germany)

And I'm sure there will be others - feel free to trackback or add 'em in the comments section.