Let’s get something out of the way here first. I love The Tank. It’s right up there with OP-FOR and Danger Room to me. So I’m happy just to have been noticed and referred to by W. Thomas Smith Jr. — even if it is only to take me to task for this post.

I want to thank Thomas for his correction to my post from yesterday on Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson’s column, “Soldiers’ Voices.”

I did not Google “Spc. Jason Gilson” when I wrote my response. I should have. I did a cursory check through Google for instances of anti-war protesters mistreating returning soldiers, but obviously didn’t go deep enough (it’s the nature of blogging, especially when you’re doing it from but definitely not for work — which is an excuse that Thomas seems, ostensibly at least, to understand).

What Spc. Gilson experienced on wealthy Bainbridge Island is despicable. Trust me: it makes me sick that the left often(most)times can’t speak intelligently about/to the military; actually bashing soldiers sends me into a fiery rage. So I can assure you I did not intend to step on Spc. Gilson’s service, sacrifices or experiences. Indeed, were this a conversation at a party, I’d be forced to leave right now with my tail between my legs, assuming I’m still standing.

Now, that said, I suppose I’m going to be accused of slipping into some left-wing, slippery-slope, moral-relativity talking points when I add this: The fact that Spc. Gilson was — to put it nicely — verbally assaulted (and, for some reason, he seemed to be expecting it, given his earlier letter home) doesn’t (a) prove there’s widespread hatred or mistreatment of veterans by the anti-war crowd or (b) justify Patterson’s spreading such a belief within the ranks just to promote his blatantly partisan book. Those were, and remain to be, my larger points.

I wouldn’t read The Tank if I didn’t like Thomas (especially) and his co-writers. Prior to this, he probably had no idea I existed. And it’s easy for him to swat a fly like me — I appreciate it, actually, because he did point out egregious errors (essentially, claiming that zero mistreatment cases had occurred and using Spc. Gilson as an example) on my part. Not to mention the overarching mistake of not having fact-checked myself nearly as well as I should have.

We agree on many things, and especially this:

[T]ruth is truth whether we want it to be or not.

Thanks, man. Keep up the good work.

(I’ll go through and add more links in this post later, but I wanted to get it up as soon as possible — since the first of what I expect to be many hate comments has already arrived.)