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. Theyve 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 dont 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 dont believe me, just ask John ONeill 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, Murthas 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 Murthas case, through then-Rep. John Saylor. But Saylors 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 hes going, dont we?. Liberals want to insist when they tout a war hero making their anti-liberation of Iraq talking points, its 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 werent enough, theres 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 didnt 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. Bushs National Guard record was a scandal in 2000, but also didnt want the media poring over Al Gores Vietnam service as a journalist. Four years later, there they were again, poring over Bushs Vietnam-era service record.
Its 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.
i know airline stewardesses who’ve spent more time in ‘Nam than Murtha.
That is why the M67 grenade has the added safety catch as well as the pin, so that some dope who didn’t pay attention during training, would not be a danger to his fellow troops.
In our company Purple Hearts were written up by the hospital, not the command. According to the regulation the wound had to be serious enough to be treated by a doctor, not a medic.
I cant understand how Hanoi John got his, two of his wounds were even self inflicted and the third was only bumps and bruises.
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