Pissed off
Aug. 24th, 2004 05:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI've been looking at how the opponents of the Democratic candidates have been playing for the past few years, and I'm pissed off.
I like to think I'd be pissed off even if I'd been in favor of the Republican candidates.
Because the swift boat ads are the latest in a long series of attacks on those who've served.
Max Cleland
Al Gore
John Kerry
What tipped it was probably the fat-headed, intentionally obscurant, and false, statements by Bob Dole.
Max Cleland: He lost three limbs, when an American grenade went off in a hot LZ. He was jumping out a helicopter while people were shooting at him, and Ann Coulter says it was people like him who cost us the war.
Al Gore: Served as an enlisted soldier in Saigon. He was pilloried because it was, "soft" duty, and because he was one of some 170,000 troops whose tours were shortened by Nixon as part of Vietnamization.
John Kerry: He spent almost two-years training to for duties in a war he had reservations about, but went to anyway. He spent eight months in the combat theatre, four of them in some of the hottest Areas of Operation in Vietnam. He got three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star. He's being called a liar, and a sham artist; accused of managing to fake his awards for valor, and manufacturing his Purple Hearts.
How has it come to pass that we accept slurs on service as acceptable.
Dole, in particular (whom I voted for, in the Primaries, for his race for president, though not for the office itself) has earned more than scorn, he has forfeited the respect his valor in WW2 bought him, and now deserves nothing less than the back of my hand, and the cut direct.
He said Kerry never bled for his Purple Hearts, that they were for trivial wounds.
Well he knows better, twice. The Purple Heart is a simple award, get injured while in contact with the enemy, and you get it. Dole's first award of the Purple Heart came as the result of his error with a grenade (which is what those who tried to besmirch Cleland said, though the facts point to someone else making the mistake).
Dole described his as the kind of wound the Army fixed with, "Mercurachrome, and a Purple Heart."
And it was often like that. Bill Mauldin had a Willie and Joe cartoon where Willie tells the medic to just give him an aspirin, because he already had a Purple Heart. It matters not to me that Kerry, or Dole, may not have suffered any great harm for his Purple Heart.
One of the people in my unit got a Heart for getting a small piece of metal in her eye. No real harm. She wore an eye-patch for a week.
But if it had been a little larger, or a little faster, she might be blind in one eye, she might be dead. That could have happened to Dole, it could have happened to Kerry. They were injured, while under enemy fire, in the line of duty.
That's what the award is for. You don't get a bigger Purple Heart for losing a leg than you do for getting a scratch. You get it because it might have killed you. Sometimes your family gets it because it did kill you.
This is unconscionable.
As a vet, these people have lost my vote, until they redeem themselves, they can whistle for it.
I like to think I'd be pissed off even if I'd been in favor of the Republican candidates.
Because the swift boat ads are the latest in a long series of attacks on those who've served.
Max Cleland
Al Gore
John Kerry
What tipped it was probably the fat-headed, intentionally obscurant, and false, statements by Bob Dole.
Max Cleland: He lost three limbs, when an American grenade went off in a hot LZ. He was jumping out a helicopter while people were shooting at him, and Ann Coulter says it was people like him who cost us the war.
Al Gore: Served as an enlisted soldier in Saigon. He was pilloried because it was, "soft" duty, and because he was one of some 170,000 troops whose tours were shortened by Nixon as part of Vietnamization.
John Kerry: He spent almost two-years training to for duties in a war he had reservations about, but went to anyway. He spent eight months in the combat theatre, four of them in some of the hottest Areas of Operation in Vietnam. He got three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star. He's being called a liar, and a sham artist; accused of managing to fake his awards for valor, and manufacturing his Purple Hearts.
How has it come to pass that we accept slurs on service as acceptable.
Dole, in particular (whom I voted for, in the Primaries, for his race for president, though not for the office itself) has earned more than scorn, he has forfeited the respect his valor in WW2 bought him, and now deserves nothing less than the back of my hand, and the cut direct.
He said Kerry never bled for his Purple Hearts, that they were for trivial wounds.
Well he knows better, twice. The Purple Heart is a simple award, get injured while in contact with the enemy, and you get it. Dole's first award of the Purple Heart came as the result of his error with a grenade (which is what those who tried to besmirch Cleland said, though the facts point to someone else making the mistake).
Dole described his as the kind of wound the Army fixed with, "Mercurachrome, and a Purple Heart."
And it was often like that. Bill Mauldin had a Willie and Joe cartoon where Willie tells the medic to just give him an aspirin, because he already had a Purple Heart. It matters not to me that Kerry, or Dole, may not have suffered any great harm for his Purple Heart.
One of the people in my unit got a Heart for getting a small piece of metal in her eye. No real harm. She wore an eye-patch for a week.
But if it had been a little larger, or a little faster, she might be blind in one eye, she might be dead. That could have happened to Dole, it could have happened to Kerry. They were injured, while under enemy fire, in the line of duty.
That's what the award is for. You don't get a bigger Purple Heart for losing a leg than you do for getting a scratch. You get it because it might have killed you. Sometimes your family gets it because it did kill you.
This is unconscionable.
As a vet, these people have lost my vote, until they redeem themselves, they can whistle for it.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 11:04 am (UTC)TK
Re: Pissed Off:
This is admirably well-thought and well-said, expressing
an attitude almost precisely corresponding with mine. I
might, though, carry it somewhat farther; I have little
respect for the other politicians of that party who did not
vigorously object to such attacks -- or for those journalists
who did not ask Leading Questions inviting such
repudiation in the forums they provide.
Actually, I don't have Absolute Faith in Military Medals &
Awards, just a moderate respect for them. COs get a
certain amount of egoboo and Brownie Points from having
a large number of the troops under their command who
have such citations, so they tend to write-up their
recommendations in (largely formulaic) words that make
the actions sound as impressive as possible, perhaps even
stretching or bending the truth a little. But in my
experience they were always careful to avoid outright
falsehoods. I'm reasonably certain the higher-level
Reviewing Officers check facts carefully, and disallow any
applications that they find the least bit questionable.
Re: Purple Hearts
I confess to disliking the way this Award has become a
catch-all to cover both serious wounds and trivial minor
injuries, but that _does_ seem to be its intended nature.
(Rumor had it, in the '50s, that the medal itself, with
attendant ribbon, cost about seventeen cents to make, and
I'd wager that more than one G.I. has expressed a
preference, perhaps not entirely seriously, for getting the
money instead.)
On a more personal level.... I do not in the least regret the
action I took, while a Medic with the 40th Division in
Korea c. 1952, to help prevent the Purple Heart from being
excessively (in my opinion) degraded. A young
replacement Lieutenant, fresh out of OCS, came to me for
treatment of an injury -- removal of a small splinter of
wood from his left upper-arm. It was the kind of thing
most people would take care of themselves, or that I might
do without writing it up, but he insisted on having all the
formal paperwork done ... and made the mistake of
mentioning the words "Purple Heart" in a seriously eager
tone of voice.
The removal of the splinter might not have been quite as
gentle as was within my power, but I was scrupulously
meticulous in recording all the details on the proper
Forms -- something like "splinter of wood, approx. 2
inches long & 1/16 in. in diameter at the widest part ...
injury incurred incidentally when patient dove into
bunker upon hearing the whine of incoming mortar
rounds (which landed several hundred yards away) and
brushed against the rough wood of the door-post". Yes, I
used the word "incidentally", and indirectly (but clearly)
indicated that the splinter was not secondary shrapnel
from an exploding round, with some malice aforethought.
As I'd expected, my C.O. took the papers over to the Lt.'s
C.O. and (probably after they'd stopped laughing) they
Officially Decided that the injury did not merit a Purple
Heart. (Mind you, I never hesitated to do affirmative
paperwork on even trivial injuries incurred in actual
combat.)
Re: Pissed off
Date: 2004-08-29 07:30 am (UTC)--Don Fitch
Re: Pissed off
Date: 2004-08-29 09:25 am (UTC)Re: Pissed off
Date: 2004-08-31 03:51 am (UTC)