Here is a token of my appreciation
Posted on 01/17/2006 8:32:14 PM PST by Calpernia
Since November, the media have carried around Rep. John Murtha around on their shoulders like a conquering hero for his opposition to the war in Iraq. They’ve thrown around the words “war hero” like clowns throwing candy at a parade. Murtha was broadcast far and wide attacking Vice President Cheney for his five deferments from Vietnam, suggesting these chicken hawks don’t like any suggestions about how to fight a war.
If Murtha were a Republican accusing a Democrat like this, we know what would happen. The so-called nonpartisan, objective, “mainstream” media would either (a) totally ignore him as an irrelevant, obscure House wacko, or (b) investigate his own military record to see if he earned all the “war hero” talk. And if discrepancies were found, all hell would break loose. And if you don’t believe me, just ask John O’Neill and the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, who underwent first (a) and then (b) when they challenged John Kerry.
But Murtha is a Democrat accusing a Republican. So it fell to the Cybercast News Service, (CNSNews.com, which I founded), and reporters Marc Morano and Randy Hall to look into the Murtha military record. What they found were a lot of similarities to the military record of John Kerry.
Like Kerry, Murtha’s medals came for surface wounds that never caused his evacuation from the battlefield, and like Kerry, he attempted to get his medals by political manipulation, in Murtha’s case, through then-Rep. John Saylor. But Saylor’s office felt it was odd for Murtha to seek medals for “superficial lacerations.”
Murtha also told differing stories about when and where he was wounded in action. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story reported in 2002 that Murtha had facial lacerations. In 1994, the Uniontown (Pa.) Herald-Standard quoted Murtha saying he was “wounded in the arm” for one medal and “my knee was banged up and my arm was banged up when a helicopter was shot down” for the other. Then, Morano and Hall uncovered a June 1, 1967 report in the Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune-Democrat quoting from a letter from Murtha to his wife describing his injuries as being "struck in the ankle" by a "shot that ricocheted off the helicopter."
Since there were so many similarities to Kerry – including the fact that author Morano was also one of the first reporters on the Swift Boat Veterans story – the left predictably threw an ugly fit. It was not long, then, for Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne to load his air-rifle for rhetorical battle. “I underestimated the viciousness of the right wing,” he began.
Even before he gets started, we know where he’s going, don’t we?. Liberals want to insist when they tout a “war hero” making their anti-liberation of Iraq talking points, it’s 100 percent beyond the pale of decency to investigate him. They want the world to know that when a “war hero” acceptable to them disagrees with President Bush, everyone must stop, shut up, and listen like an old E.F. Hutton commercial.
Dionne sounds just like his hero Bill Clinton as he proclaims to be maddened by “the unblushing hypocrisy of the right wing and the way it circulates...personal vilification to abort honest political debate.” As if that weren’t enough, there’s also this: “Moreover, the right has demonstrated that its attitude toward military service is entirely opportunistic.”
Now here is where we should all acknowledge our partisanship – I oppose the Clintons and the Kerrys, and Dionne favors them. But can Dionne honestly state that the left wing (and “objective” smearers like CBS) have not resorted to “personal vilification” on the military record of George W. Bush? Can he honestly ignore that the left has vilified the World War II military service of Bob Dole in 1996 (Robert Ellis in The Nation) and George H. W. Bush in 1992 (Sidney Blumenthal in the New Republic)?
More importantly, how dare anyone on the left accuse any conservative of attitudinal opportunism where military service is involved. Military service didn’t matter a bit to them when Bill Clinton was running, but was vitally important when Kerry was their man in 2004. They felt George W. Bush’s National Guard record was a scandal in 2000, but also didn’t want the media poring over Al Gore’s Vietnam service as a journalist. Four years later, there they were again, poring over Bush’s Vietnam-era service record.
It’s fair to state that on some investigative stories, only conservatives want the tough, thorough report, and on others, only liberals are really jazzed about it. But what about the public interest? A media revering the words “objective,” “nonpartisan,” and “mainstream” would investigate both Republicans and Democrats when politicians start dragging out their war records.
WHAT? Are you nuts?? Enduring abuse at the hands of ANYONE is NOT peserving ANY kind of "family life" -- that notion is absolutly ridiculous!! And to say that a man (or woman) who is putting their life on the line for MY freedom is "no more heroic" than someone who stands around letting someone abuse them, that just makes NO sense at all!!
Pres. Bush still served.
bttt
Here is a token of my appreciation
Thanks for that source, Cal. I knew that I had read it somewhere...just got the part of its being a commanding officer that refused him the medals....It was Kerry who was refused by a commanding officer.
Oooooh!! Nice token!! LOL
>>>>Looks like those guys who dodged Vietnam were the smart ones.
I wouldn't call dodging smart though.
Now THAT I would compare to the battered woman example in post 9.
Cleland or the other guy dropped a grenade which had been attached to his person, thus making the grenade live.
Another good example for the battered woman comparison in post 9.
I think RVN's post here my help with that question.
MURTHA's record on his website
Distinguished Service Medal of the United States Marine Corps, upon his retirement from the Marine Corps Reserves for 37 years of distinguished service to his country, 1990. Distinguished Service Medal, Pennsylvania's highest honor, 1977. Meritorious Service Medal, Pennsylvania's second-highest honor, 1976. Bronze Star with Combat V, 1966. Purple Heart, 1966. Purple Heart, second award, 1966. Vietnamese Cross of Galantry, 1966. American Spirit Honor Medal of the Marine Corps Recruit Department, 1952.
However in the document provided by his office purportedly from the Marine Corp said: "The records of this Headquarters show that you are entitled to the Purple Heart and a Gold Star in lieu of a second Purple Heart for wounds received in action against insurgent Communist Guerrilla forces on 22 March and 7 May 1967 in the Republic of Vietnam," according to the letter signed by an individual identified only as A. Gardoni. Gardoni's title is not listed on the letter.
Now it would seem that he was awarded medals before he was there...move over skerry...you got company!!
"Seeing that I'm very proud of a full head of hair at almost 60, I'm loathe to shave it."
LOL! Congratulations! But it wouldn't bother me, I like men with little to no hair ! )
"Besides, any man who claims medals for superficial wounds after seeing badly wounded,true American Heroes is a p*ssy and coward in my book."
There's a point I hadn't seen, it's almost as if it was so obvious that I didn't want to see it. Now that you've made it, my madmeter has gone over the top, as I consider the use the troops at WRAMH he claims to visit to make his points. I have a rather large pet peeve at anyone who uses the dead to score political points-to the point that I did not let go of local and corporate media and their public forum until such time as it was understood that that was viewed as dirty pool.
This, naturally, translates to an even larger pet peeve at anyone who uses the wounded to score political points. Which, naturally, translated to support for the FReepers who have been so gracious to counter-protest Code Pink every Friday at Walter Reed.
Murtha can visit these troops, and cry about it, and then use it for political gain, but wouldn't see his own NG unit off, visit, or welcome them home.
And WHY is he still yapping about his plan after a 403-3 vote????????????????????????????????????????????????????
NOT only did he not see the NG off (or welcome them home)....(and lie about Morale); but he and Moran thought they were in Iraq when they were in Afghanistan.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1559552/posts
Reps. Murtha and Moran confronted by an Army Sergeant on C-Span
Unless, I suppose, one had political aspirations. Then the trick was to subjet oneself to danger just long enough to risk getting a scratch on the cheek or catching a high-velocity rice kernal in the posterior (courtesy of one's own ill-tossed hand grenade). Then a Purple Heart was just one more item for one's resume and one whined until a superior relented and approved the award out of weariness of hearing the whine.
I know men who were grievously injured in Vietnam who were awarded Purple Hearts. Murtha's and Kerry's awards are blots on the history of that noble medal.
Maybe that's why Murtha got all emotional and threatened recently to give another wounded vet his own Purple Heart if the vet wasn't awarded one in his own right. Maybe Murtha's conscience got the better of him when he contrasted the plight of a deserving soldier with his own imaginary or real superficial wounds.
That lays it out quite well.
It shows every reason why we should be making this a national issue save one.
That one being this is exactly how Kerry and his ilk used "winter soldiers" to protest and bring an end to the Viet Nam War. Back then there was no internet, no "vast right wing conspiracy" and no talk radio to effectively expose and condemn those trotted out to be front men for the anti war protest and so even knowing that people like Al Hubbard were fakes and frauds they were allowed to say what ever they please to destroy the moral of our forces in combat.
We cannot allow it to happen again, we cannot be the silenced majority again this time, we must call them out and hold them to the same exacting standards they hold our leaders to.
To do anything less would be abandoning our troops to their mental manipulation as well as a sure fire recipe for another generation of broken soldiers.
There will be those here that will gladly tell you "let's not go there", or "let's not do this" or "he's a senile old man let him speak" some of them are puppets to a cadre of liberals determined to prevent this course of action, and some of them are the cadre that exist on this board to stop us from doing anything. Tonk calls them "The Move on FReepers ©".
But to me they are the "Do Nothings™" because every time they sense republicans' ire moving towards action, they step in to say "DO NOTHING" and tell us how this would be "wrong for the party".
These people are perfectly willing to allow a Repeat of Viet Nam or those in government that have commited crimes or treason to continue walk free because holding them to the standards the liberals hold us would seem unseemly and mean spirited.
Ask yourself who are they really protecting and there is only one answer.....
The Party.......
The Democratic Party!
Write a letter to the editor today
let your voices be heard
and don't allow Muthra, Kerry and the rest
or the Do Nothings™ to silence you during this war.
The price of our silence is too great.
>>>>Maybe that's why Murtha got all emotional and threatened recently to give another wounded vet his own Purple Heart if the vet wasn't awarded one in his own right.
And it is even actions like this that make it more disgusting. This is belittling and scum that compare heroics to that of battered women (post 9) and the use medals for political resumes stain the points and earnings of medals.
These women are not heroic, they are stupid and cowards and are subjecting their children to a life far more horible than they would have if they would divorce the creep. Often abusing spouses(male and female) are also abusive to the children as well. The women and men who leave this kind of mate are the real heros.
I was a little disturbed last night. I was reading this anti-war, left wing blog and saw almost word for word a lot of the same quotes the Move On 'freepers' were using.
Those who have been there have no need to tell others about it, nor do they wish to publicize their experiences. I am reminded of a late friend who, at his retirement party a decade ago, at the time of the 50th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima (1995), mentioned that he was there during the momentous battle as a 17-year old Navy corpsman who joined the service against his parent's wishes and, nominally, illegally. But that was then, when duty, honor, and country meant something to a lot of folks in the USA. In any case, he had never spoken of this before, I was taken aback. Most unlike charlatans such as Murtha and Kerry. The latter are despicable. I knew deep down that Murtha is a fraud, and have known since 1971 that Kerry is one, too. The MSM latches on to these clowns because that's all there is on their side.
Tonight, Chris Matthews, that Class A democRAT apologist, is going to have Murtha on defend his record. Matthews, a pure piece of human debris, is making the allegation that there is a plot out to defame war heroes such as Kerry and Murtha.
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