What Were They Thinking? (Stars Earn Stripes Edition)

NBC is a network that I try to avoid bashing due exclusively to my love for their Thursday night comedy line up. I mostly held my tongue during impressively bad moments of their Olympics coverage. I have even been willing to overlook Grimm. I cannot, however, give them a pass on this miscarriage they are calling Stars Earn Stripes.

Mind you, I have not seen this show. It is possible they have stumbled upon something breathtaking and cathartic that will change the way we look at war. But I doubt it.

The concept of the show is that a host of "celebrities" are assisted by special operatives from various military branches in executing tasks based on actual combat missions. The celebrities include Peekaboo Street, Nick Lachey, and Todd Palin. None of the contestants is anything to get excited about, in my opinion.

I expect that, throughout the episodes on this show, the contestants will repeatedly and emphatically state how difficult war is and how they have gained new found respect for actual servicemen. I know those comments will be coming from a good place, but it seems to me that they are insulting. To imply that playing games on TV is anything like actual war is insulting to us as a general population that has largely been complacent during the over-a-decade-long conflict in the Middle East, and to servicemen and women especially.

The veterans and current military men and women I have asked about this show seem to feel the same way. Trivializing the physical and emotional demands that war entails by comparing celebrity war games to the real thing makes them angry.

I am surprised that General Wesley Clark agreed to host this show. As someone who spent a career serving with men and women like the ones I spoke to, I can't imagine that he wouldn't anticipate the reactions I discussed above.

The one redeeming quality that this show has, as far as I can tell from previews alone, mind you, is that the contestants are playing for a sum of money to be donated to a veterans' charity of their choice. Still, NBC, maybe next time just give the money and keep the D-List celebs to yourselves.