Rooney Strikes Again

"All that we do is done with an eye to something else."

    - Aristotle (384-322 BCE), Greek philosopher

I missed CBS's Sixty Minutes the other night, so I didn't get to hear Andy Rooney saying that our soldiers in Iraq are not heroes. A Google search turned up a transcript of his remarks which I present here for your consideration. What has stirred up many military bloggers are the five questions posed by Mr. Rooney:

1. Do you think your country did the right thing sending you into Iraq?

2. Are you doing what America set out to do to make Iraq a democracy, or have we failed so badly that we should pack up and get out before more of you are killed?

3. Do the orders you get handed down from one headquarters to another, all far removed from the fighting, seem sensible, or do you think our highest command is out of touch with the reality of your situation?

4. If you could have a medal or a trip home, which would you take?

5. Are you encouraged by all the talk back home about how brave you are and how everyone supports you?

Tonight I ran across posts about these questions, as well as Rooney's other comments, on many weblogs. Michele Catalano at her blog, A Small Victory, does a pretty good job of capturing the mood of most who were offended by what he had to say:

"...this is the new America. It's ok to talk about our brave (yes, brave) soldiers like that. It's ok, because America is evil and our soldiers are just minions of Satan doing his bidding. It's ok because Bush is a bad, bad man who willfully let 9/11 happen on his watch just so he can be a war president."

Andy calls for openness and honesty about the war in Iraq, and who could argue against that? But is he open and honest himself? There was a time when his commentary  was mainly humorous observations on everyday life, but recently he has migrated to more controversial political material. I wonder why. Perhaps it's because controversy attracts viewers, and television is always looking for more viewers.

Only Rooney knows whether the beliefs he asserts on the show stem from real conviction, which I assume he wants us to think, or a desire for more attention, which I assume he would deny. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall where what's going to be on the show is being discussed and hear him explain the rationale for his segment. Would we hear him taking the moral high-ground, or trying to drum up more business for CBS? 

Update: Patrick on his weblog, Patrick's Place, offers another point of view on Rooney's comments.

Correction: Some of you who watched Sixty Minutes Sunday night have told me that Andy talked about kitchen gadgets, not U.S. soldiers. After some investigation, I find you are correct. Andy's questions appeared in his syndicated column, not on Sixty Minutes. My apologies for the error.