Outrage as TV host says he is 'uncomfortable' calling fallen soldiers 'heroes'



An MSNBC broadcaster has caused outrage by saying he feels 'uncomfortable' branding soldiers who have died in battle 'heroes'.

Chris Hayes, a liberal commentator who hosts Up with Chris Hayes, said the word is used to justify further war.



His stuttered comments - made on Memorial Day weekend - have sparked outrage among veterans organisations and across the internet.

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Insensitive: On his self-named MSNBC show over Memorial Day weekend, Chris Hayes said he feels 'uncomfortable' calling fallen soldiers 'heroes'

Mumblings: Hayes has been ridiculed for his stuttered explanation, in which he claimed using the word 'heroes' justified more wars

The TV host said: 'I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words "heroes".

'I feel... uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.'

He went on: 'I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that.

'But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic.' He then added: 'But maybe I'm wrong about that.'

Grief: It comes as the nation remembers its fallen soldiers on Memorial Day. Here, Terry Dutcher visits the grave of her son who died in Iraq, aged 19

Remembered: Flags are placed at the graves of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. A veterans organisation also condemned Hayes's comments

A spokesman for a veterans organisation, Veterans of Foreign Wars, suggested Hayes put himself through the anguish of war before criticising soldiers.

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'If Mr. Hayes feels uncomfortable, I suggest he enlist, go to war, then come home to what he expects is a grateful nation but encounters the opposite,' Joe Davis told The Daily Caller .



'It’s far too easy to cast stones from inexperience.'



Bloggers and users of social networking sites also condemned the comments, with 'Chris Hayes' trending on Twitter after the broadcast.

Newsbusters blogger Mark Finkelstein said Hayes's stuttered speech ' almost seems a parody of the conflicted intellectual'.

'What does it say about the liberal chattering class, which Hayes epitomizes, that it chokes on calling America's fallen what they rightly and surely are: heroes?'



Prayers: As part of the Memorial Day service, President Obama bows his head in a moment of silence with U.S. Army Major General Michael Linnington after laying a wreath in Arlington Cemetery

Heroic: General John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, salutes before he reads aloud a letter written by an American soldier to his family before he died earlier this year

Conservative commentator Warner Todd Huston wrote on blog Wizbang : 'I’d like to remind you that many of those Neanderthals that you despise so much died for your right to hate them. '

'Fire Chris Hayes !' One Twitter user, Kathleen Morgan, wrote on the site. 'His outright DISDAIN for our valiant men and women is disgusting!'

Hayes, who has never served in the armed forces, has hosted his weekend show on MSNBC since last September.

He has appeared as a guest host and commentator on shows including The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and The Rachel Maddow Show.



He also remains Editor-at-Large of the left-leaning The Nation .

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