http://www.americal.org/awards/ph.htm
Posted on 11/10/2009 5:36:57 AM PST by shortstop
Should they get the Purple Heart?
The soldiers who were shot Thursday at Fort Hood, the ones who were killed and the ones who survived -- should they get the Purple Heart?
It’s the medal, generally speaking, that we give GIs who are wounded by enemy action in combat. Often, when dignitaries come through military hospitals, they will award the Purple Heart to recuperating soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors.
If you are hit by an IED, you get the Purple Heart. If you are shot in a firefight, you get the Purple Heart. If you get a shrapnel wound from a mortar attack, you get the Purple Heart.
It is a medal that attests to the fact you have shed your blood for your country.
And the question is: Should the soldiers who were shot on Thursday be given this medal?
Absolutely.
No doubt about it.
In fact, it should be presented at today’s memorial service. The general or the secretary or the president should make the presentation to the survivors and the families. This token of injury in the nation’s service, as the result of enemy action, is deserved and should be presented.
But that depends on an acknowledgement that the White House and military brass are not likely to make – and that is that on Thursday these soldiers were attacked by the enemy in an act of war.
That building, that day, was a war zone and a battlefield. – if not by our designation, than by our enemy’s designation. And the gunman was every bit as much an enemy combatant as any we’ve ever faced, even though he wore the uniform of our country.
The White House and the military brass want to define Thursday’s attack as a crime, not an act of terrorism or jihadi war. They want to see “secondary combat stress” or mental illness as the cause, not the Muslim bigotry that fuels international terrorism. They want this to be some sort of problem they can back into an accusation against the Army, instead of a purposeful attack against our troops.
The White House has decided that there is no longer a “global war on terror” or a “war on terrorism.” Unfortunately, nobody told the terrorists – foreign or domestic – and they keep waging jihad.
It is unlikely these soldiers will get the Purple Heart because politics will get in the way. It is more important to the White House and the military brass that no politically correct toes get stepped on than that these GIs receive the honor they deserve.
But the fact is that whether you are shot by a Muslim terrorist in Iraq or Texas you’re still shot by a Muslim terrorist. Evil is not a matter of geography and, as we learned on Sept. 11, the other side wants to fight this war in our homeland.
And Fort Hood is our homeland. It is the heart of America and the heart of our Army. And just as the Pentagon was a combat zone eight years ago, Fort Hood was a combat zone last Thursday.
And the casualties on a domestic battlefield should be accorded the same honors as the casualties on a foreign battlefield.
When Nidal Malik Hasan jumped on the desk and started shouting jihadi slogans in Arabic, as he identified himself as a Muslim holy warrior, he was every bit as much an enemy of the United States as Osama bin Laden, and his attack was every bit as much an assault on the United States as were the attacks of Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001.
And the injured or slain servicemembers are just as deserving of this nation’s gratitude and honor as their predecessors.
Period.
Nidal Malik Hasan sat in the same mosque, listening to the same radical imam, as two 9-11 hijackers. He parroted the same hateful bigotry as the 9-11 hijackers and any number of jihadi bloggers. He wrote that it was heroic for a Muslim to kill American soldiers who did battle with Muslims, and on Thursday he tried to do exactly that.
It was an act of war. Whether it was a coordinated act of war, or a freelanced act of war – whether he was directed from afar or driven from within – it was an act of war.
And the killed and wounded soldiers of Fort Hood are casualties of war and should be honored as such.
They deserve the Purple Heart.
Here’s hoping your congressman and your president – and the military they fund and command – will make sure that they get it.
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions!”
—Traitor in Chief Obama
http://www.americal.org/awards/ph.htm
If this had been WWII and a shell from an offshore German submarine lurking up and down the Jersey shore had hit guys just standing watch on shore they'd gotten a Purple Heart.
It's not so much the "location" ~ we know that one ~ it's wherever Americans are ~ which is all of here and a lot of "there" ~ it's the "enemy action" that's at issue.
If John “Freakin” Kerry can receive a purple heart for being a traitor then these guys/gals should get theirs wrapped in gold !!
1 of the soilders was from my neighborhood. I saw her friends and family and the news. I’m sure they would appreciate her being awarded the purple heart.
Also I’m sure they’d like to rip out Hasan’s heart to see how black it is.
I bet Obama and the media would rather use this occasion to push for gun control.
President Obama’s “have an open mind” is the last I heard from his Presidential lips on this horrible Tragedy.
I'm writing my Congressman this morning and requesting that he put on the floor a request to grant each and every fatally wounded and wounded soldier a Purple Heart.
Now we, the tax payer, are paying for the shooter's health care and probably if he survives he will be on the United States Taxpayer dole for the rest of his putrid life.
Prayers to those families of the dead and wounded.
Can u imagine the news media if bush had made such a mistake??? But yet...not a peep from the from the "investigative journalists"
I disagree.
Why do you disagree?
Okay you won't but as a Nam Vet, I will
If a (self-admitted) TRAITOR--John "THE RAT SNAKE BASTARD" Kerry--can be awarded TWO purple hearts to which he was NOT entitled or deserved (and has been proven were NOT as a result of "enemy action" and were in fact BOTH self-inflicted) then by all means, these heroic warriors are entitled to same, or greater, recognition and commendation.
I was lucky: 18 months and not a scratch, but if I had earned one, I would be sending mine to one of the men/women who were injured in this enemy, combat, attack
PS: Less we forget, one of The Snake's purple hearts required the medic removing a SLIVER of shrapnel with TWEEZERS and then applying a BAND AID!
The fact that the proposed recipient was participating in direct or indirect combat operations is a necessary prerequisite, but is not sole justification for award.
Thank you sir, for your service, and I think you’ve hit on an idea.
If the Department of the Army turns out to be too P.C. ridden to recognize the sacrifice of these dead and wounded (who were about to deploy to a combat zone) with the Purple Heart (for fear of offending Muslims) then what would happen if enough wounded veterans donated their awards, with great fanfare, to the Fort Hood wounded warriors?
What if each of these wounded or the families of the dead were personally presented with the Purple Heart by a previous awardee? It would mean a tremendous amount to them, and serve as a reproach to a reluctant DOD.
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