Posted on 03/14/2006 10:18:35 PM PST by kokonut
It has come to my attention, quite shockingly, that the Pentagon has not yet given out Purple Hearts to the soldiers killed and wounded in the grenade and rifle attack at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait a few days before the start of the Iraq war on March 23, 2003. It has been three since the attack and family and service members are wondering why the Pentagon’s refusal to give out Purple Hearts? One of them was my cousin, Major Gregory Stone, who was mortally wounded from the grenades that were tossed in his tent while he slept.
The Purple Heart, which is awarded to a service member killed or wounded as a result of enemy or terrorist action, has never been presented to those killed and wounded that night. They have, so far, been denied this simple but important display of respect our nation gives to those who have sacrificed so much in its service.
Three years after the attack, the wounded soldiers and family members of the deceased are being denied this seemingly small, but emotionally important symbol by a military bureaucracy that cannot see past definitions. The Pentagon claims that Akbar--who was convicted of murder in a military trial last April and now awaits execution at Fort Leavenworth--was just a criminal and not an enemy. During Akbar's trial, I could understand that calling him a terrorist would probably unnecessarily complicate the prosecution. When the trial ended, though, I and many family members assumed the awards would be forthcoming. But when I inquired further, I was told that the incident was not deemed a terrorist attack and therefore the Purple Hearts could not be awarded.
(Excerpt) Read more at kokonutpundits.blogspot.com ...
I agree with you. Let us say two soldiers serving in Iraq get in a fist fight and injure themselves. They do not get purple hearts.
So you are right. Unless the attacker is reclassified as an enemy soldier, there can not be purple hearts.
"If they reclassify this is as an act of war and not as a crime which would be necessary to receive the medal, then it would call into question the right of the Army to prosecute the offender under the UCMJ."
I wish the President would make an exception here. These men were killed by a traitor. Leave the legal technicalities out of it.
"If you were the attorney responsible for keeping this dirtbag from being hanged would you leave the legalities out?"
Of course not. I'm referring to the "legalities" surrounding the award of Purple Heart. Bush can make an exception for these fallen men without jeapordizing the legal case against the perp.
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