US Mint Releases Medal of Honor Coin

02/25/2011

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Actually I don’t like that image. The MoH is not a “first aid” award, and even those medical personnel who become recipients of the MoH, become recipients less because they saved lives than they saved their unit, or allowed it to stop an enemy attack, even personally vigorously taking the fight to the enemy. The vast majority nearly single handedly changed the course of a battle from a potential defeat to a victory.

And this matters right now, because there are efforts to “downgrade” recognition of combat actions in favor of those that “preserve life”. A suggestion of this sort, fortunately not by a US officer, but by a UK officer, was that there should be a medal for “courageous restraint”.

The very suggestion of this provoked tremendous outrage among US forces and civilians, the culmination of “lawyer directed” battles under a tepid and uncertain ROE, I suppose with the intent of not “offending” the enemy.

The liberal left abhor the concept of military battle, much preferring that such conflicts be treated like police prosecuting arrest. They reject outright such concepts as heroism, honor, self-sacrifice, and ferocity in battle.

Had this company wanted to truly impress, they could have stamped a large series of individual coins to honor MoH recipients. Especially living ones. That would be 85 coins, with several fewer every year.

And you could bet your bottom dollar that lots of people would buy complete sets of those coins.