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Edited on Sat Feb-26-05 07:20 PM by UTUSN
When politicians do it, using Vets and the flag as tools, it's military baiting. But the outrageous ones are when vets themselves do it.
In 2000, during the recount period, the Repukes paraded five or six Medal of Honor holders, with their medals on their chests and their Vet caps on their heads, onto a REPUKE stage. I was incensed and called the VFW and American Legion headquarters to ask whether their organizations were political. Both said they were not. As you know, 180, if you follow the VFW magazine, the wingnuttiness was in the glue or the staples or whatever holds it together, if not overtly in the words inside.
Supposedly, a fundamental of our beliefs was that the military (like the flag and God) belongs to all of us and are not to be partisan. It's TOTALLY FINE for vets to participate in politics after discharge and DURING their active duty in their PRIVATE TIME as citizens, but my problem is when they use their uniforms, decorations, and the flag as props for endorsements.
Political hacks like ex-Senator ENRON, uh, Phil GRAMM, are pros at it. GRAMM would pounce on "helping" vets get long-forgotten decorations. The catch was that he would then conduct a ceremony to pin the medal on the vet AT REPUKE PARTY HEADQUARTERS, with the picture in the newspaper, of course.
------But my main point here are the ones like the SwiftBots, who are CLEAR political OPERATIVES.
This is what I posted to the departed allegator of military "bashing":
I am one vet who doesn't want to be thanked.
As my hero Charlie RANGEL says, minorities are over-represented in the military because of economic circumstances. In many instances it is a form of indentured servitude, trading some years of one's life for future educational and employment benefits---with the gamble, that is, that one makes it.
As far as military bashing goes, I haven't seen much here, overtly. It's no secret that older Libs grounded in the anti-Vietnam era DID and DO have an anti-military bias ---AND IGNORANCE. It's no secret that CLINTON White House staffers treated military staff with contempt.
That said, my personal preference would be to continue seeing you, (wife of the vet), here. As far as your commitment and activism go, you are a gem. That said, I would hope that, outside this site (and the Dem party?), you would hold your fire about us and not give aid to our common enemies. If you have to choose between the occasional person who uses the phrase "baby-killers" and the Shrubbites, who would you want to win? I submit that that is the choice in its starkest form.
We are a conglomeration of many sub-groups---civil rights, social justice, labor, etc. Some of the sub-groups might have only a couple of things in common and not show much understanding of some other groups. I myself have been PC-slapped by individuals from a few DIFFERENT sub-groups. I don't believe something can be changed by abandoning it, only from within. Peace be to this house.
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