[cherry]

he is not an American hero.....what has he ever done?....more and more convinced that gaining grade especially very high grade in the military has nothing to do with your intelligence nor wisdom nor common sense nor ability, but just who you are buddy's with, who you golf with.......

these military brass are political beings from the get go.....

[drbuzzard]

Yeah, I don’t understand why Hanson panders and calls that chump a hero. I’ve read his autobiography and it’s clear from his own words that he didn’t have all that much combat experience in Vietnam, and none after that. He got one decoration for bravery and that was for dragging people out of a helicopter crash he was in (nothing to be sneered at, but we’re not talking Audie Murphy either).

He was a staff puke most of his career and leveraged affirmative action as much as he could. He never particularly exhibited all that much talent from what I’ve read.

[pabianice]

During my Navy career it was my observation that half of COs were great people and great leaders, and the other half were useless “admiral’s boys” who got there via connections. It is also my observation about flag officers, many of whom I served with on their way up.

[AFret.]

“these military brass are political beings from the get go.....”

---

powell was on the leading edge of the card players. Had he not played it, he would today be a retired Lt Col fishing on some bayou in Louisiana..

[Sans-Culotte]

he is not an American hero.....what has he ever done?....more and more convinced that gaining grade especially very high grade in the military has nothing to do with your intelligence nor wisdom nor common sense nor ability, but just who you are buddy's with, who you golf with.......

I think VDH was just "playing nice" when he referred to Powell as a "hero"; maybe to keep from being called a racist himself. when I think of Powell, I remember George H.W. Bush's account of the end of Operation Desert Storm. Bush said that as they had the Iraqis on the run back to Baghdad, that Powell came running in and asked "Mr. President, can we stop the killing now!?".

So, there is Powell's great accomplishment. He helped end Desert Storm before it was finished, thereby making the Iraq War under W a necessity. Elevate a general via affirmative action, and you get an affirmative action war as a result. What a putz.