This insightful and articulate advice was criticized on a number of pro-American, troop-supporting blogs, to which the brilliant (NOT) author replied in a letter to the editor of the Bangor Daily News, summarized at:

http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164000&zoneid=500

I was very gratified, in reviewing that site, to find an unexpected number of Bangorites and other assorted Mainers, who found the little self-appointed intellectual thug’s comments to be repugnant.

My conclusions are as follow:

Stephen King is a twisted little man, who could only make a living by regurgitating his infantile nightmares for those who need to escape their own reality to be frightened by his gory stories about other twisted people.

Considering his oh-so-cogent statement: "I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright," I would say that he should have been attending a remedial basic English language course, rather than speaking at a writers symposium.

King has expressed an unforgivable slur on the men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces, both active and reserve. These people, who are true public servants and heroes, are among the most intelligent and courageous of Americans. They have demonstrated the ability to operate the most complex, computerized weaponry and other technical equipment ever known to mankind, and the courage to serve on the front lines of the war against terrorism. Our military is an entirely volunteer force, in direct contrast to all previous wars, and in contrast to most other armies of the world.

The U.S. military is doing quite well in its recruiting efforts, thank you, as reflected in both conservative and liberal news media outlets. However, should the military ever get to the point that they need to recruit inferior intellects, I would submit that the referenced Bangor Daily News article provides a good first mailing list:

Stephen King

Gerald of Bangor, ME

cassie of presque isle, maine

Richard of Rockland, ME

Linda of Stillwater, ME

MaineCommenter of Portland, ME