Are all military members really heroes? Host apologizes for fanning firestorm

A Memorial Day controversy
continues brewing after MSNBC host Chris Hayes questioned
whether all military members should be called heroes, or
whether the term is overused.

“I feel uncomfortable about the word hero because it
seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to
justification for more war,” Hayes said on his show.

“I don’t want to obviously desecrate or disrespect the
memory of anyone that’s fallen and obviously there are
individual circumstances in which there is genuine
tremendous heroism.”

But even raising the question brought a firestorm of
criticism from a number of fronts, prompting Hayes to
issue a subsequent apology.

“I don’t think I lived up to the standards of rigor,
respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we
discuss that I’ve set for myself. I am deeply sorry for
that,” Hayes wrote.

“As many have rightly pointed out, it’s very easy for
me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our
wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or
walked a mile in their boots. Of course, that is true of
the overwhelming majority of our nation’s citizens as a
whole.”

But was he really wrong to even raise the question?
Ross and Burbank co-host Luke Burbank doesn’t think so.

“I think it’s a reasonable conversation to have. I
think it’s interesting all Chris Hayes said was ‘I’m
concerned about the overuse of the term hero.’ I’m not
trying to minimize that pain and I’m not trying to say
that folks who have died in military service are not
heroic,” Burbank says.

Burbank cited the example of service members recognized
as heroes by flight attendants making overhead
announcements on a number of trips he’s taken, regardless
of their actual duty.

“What about soldiers who never see battle? What about
soldiers who are stateside the whole time? What about
people who are filing paperwork somewhere at an office in
Dubai? Does it lower the value of calling someone who is
an absolute hero, runs out to save their fellow soldier
and drag them back to safety?” Burbank asks.

But co-host Dave Ross says he’s not about to question
or criticize anyone who dons the uniform while he sits in
the comfort of his studio.

“If the soldiers themselves decide the word is being
devalued and politely ask flight attendants not to do that
anymore, than that’s fine, but am I going to somehow
protest that? No,” Ross says.

“These aren’t the guys
that make the policy. You can
have a disagreement with our policies, and there have been
some pretty dumb ones, but somebody whose job it is to
walk into a hail of fire on order is someone who’s got to
be respected.”

Burbank insists he’s not questionining the sacrifices
or heroism of service members injured or killed in the
line of duty, just the unwillingness of some to even
discuss the broader issues Hayes raised.

“If you’ve been injured, whether physically or
psychologically, serving this country whether it’s here or
somewhere abroad, I think you’re a hero and I absolutely
will stand up and applaud for you on the plane.”

As for Hayes, he was contrite in his lengthy follow-up
statement released Monday:

But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide
and the social distance between those who fight and those
who don’t, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a
stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not
anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of
this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.”