Ohhh boy.

The military community is up in arms after The Buffalo News published a scathing editorial suggesting that the U.S. military was a terrorist organization.

Victoria Ross of the Western New York Peace Center contributed to the paper’s Another Voice column on Dec. 17. Entitled “We need to work cooperatively to promote civil society,” the short column asks Americans to support nonviolence and use diplomacy to stop war. Hmm, sure, sounds like something we can all get behind.

Ross’ call for nonviolence, however, was built upon the argument that the U.S. military is no better than the terrorists it fights. Specifically, she calls out the U.S. drone program for killing innocents, nighttime raids for terrifying communities and American law enforcement for killing citizens like Tamir Rice and Sandra Bland with impunity.

We’re not sure why she brings up that last point since police officers are not a part of the U.S. military. But don’t let us be the judge of this editorial. Give it a skim to decide whether Ross’ argument is valid.

Here’s an excerpt:

Terrorism is killing and/or instilling fear. Let’s kill the people who are killing people? Which causes more people to kill? How can that work? It doesn’t make sense. Restraining and preventing aggression is necessary. Instilling fear and Islamophobia promotes a police state.

The U.S. treatment of whistleblowers confirms governmental intimidation. Hero Edward Snowden caused policy improvements, yet he faces espionage charges.

State terrorism is still terrorism, and like violence, terrorism begets more terrorism. Do we need more or less violence? Hope we can agree we need less.

The editorial ends by inviting the public to attend an event at Ross’ organization.

Your reaction to this probably ranges somewhere between scratching your head or punching your computer screen. Thankfully, Daniel H. Trigoboff of Williamsville was able to channel his befuddlement and rage into a counter-editorial titled, “Writer crossed line with attack on military.”

The freedom of speech Ross abuses was paid for by our military in blood, spilled on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, in the freezing cold of the Chosin Reservoir, in the jungles of Southeast Asia, and currently in the deserts and towns of the Middle East. The enemies our military is fighting are brutal barbarians with 21st century weapons, who must be defeated lest they continue to engage in murder, genocide, torture, terrorism and other actions too awful to mention in a family newspaper.

And make no mistake, these enemies are skilled in the arts of propaganda and social media as well as combat, so that their malign influence is felt all over the world, from Chattanooga, New York and San Bernardino to Russian airliners, from Paris to the Yazidi and Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria, from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to anywhere free people attempt to live out their lives without being enslaved and murdered by terrorist tyrants.

Read both editorials and let us know what you think in the comments.