As the Bush Regime steadily moves to strengthen Bush's expansive powers as a unitary executive, reestablishing a Democratic majority in Congress to eliminate the partisan rubber-stamp which now exists is the immediate hope for We the People. I do not support either party, but at least a Democratic majority in Congress would provide a foil to the Bush administration and would probably initiate impeachment proceedings against him.
Yet I digress. The focal point of the rally for McCaskill was the keynote speech by Max Cleland. And I had the distinct honor of meeting him prior to the event.
"Max Cleland is a truly admirable individual", I concluded as I listened to him speak.
Cleland is a man who volunteered to go to Vietnam on what he had been led to believe was a noble crusade against the "Communist threat". He returned home a triple amputee.
His Silver Star citation reads:
"Captain Cleland distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April 1968 ... during an enemy attack near Khe Sanh.
When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Captain Cleland, disregarding his own safety, exposed himself to the rocket barrage as he left his covered position to administer first aid to his wounded comrades. He then assisted in moving the injured personnel to covered positions.
Continuing to expose himself, Captain Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment, which had been damaged by enemy fire.
His gallant action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army."
Anne Coulter, the mean-spirited propagandist who has been a gleeful accomplice of the war criminals in the White House, wrote this of Cleland:
"Max Cleland should stop allowing Democrats to portray him as a war hero who lost his limbs taking enemy fire on the battlefields of Vietnam....[he] lost three limbs in an accident during a routine non-combat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix. In fact, Cleland could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman. ... Luckily for Cleland's political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it while in Vietnam."
Max Cleland served his country with honor, lost both legs and an arm, and was awarded the Silver Star for valorous action in combat. He returned home and overcame his physical limitations, severe depression, and a sorely inadequate VA system. He went on to a distinguished career in civil service, including stints as the administrator of the Veteran's Administration and as a US Senator from Georgia.
Crusading for veterans, resigning from the 9/11 Commission to protest stonewalling by the White House, vehemently expressing his opposition to the illegal Iraqi Occupation, and campaigning for fellow Democrats, Cleland has suffered the wrath of the Bush Regime and its sycophants like Coulter.
In 2002, Cleland was "Swift-Boated" in his re-election bid for the US Senate. Saxby Chambliss took his place. Chambliss (an ardent supporter of the bellicose agenda of the Bush Regime) is a chicken-hawk who sat out the Vietnam War with a "bad knee" but won the Senatorial race with a vicious campaign that portrayed Cleland as being soft on national defense.
Thanks for your courageous service, Senator Cleland. We appreciate you sacrificing your body parts. Now bend over while we stick it to you.
Cleland and the veterans for whom he advocates so tirelessly are amongst the most grievously harmed victims of the ruling elite. Lured in by patently false assertions that they are joining the military to defend their country (or in some cases conscripted--clearly an act of a "democracy"), US military personnel have been, and are, mere cannon fodder for the imperialist war machine. Departing as heroes, veterans often return home to find themselves treated like yesterday's garbage.
"Chattel slavery endured until the Civil War and institutionalized racism persisted into the 1960's."
Actually, chattel slavery endured until 1920, when the one-slave-woman-per-man-arrangement was ended, legally at least, because women battled for and won suffrage.
And, institutionalized sexism persists to this day, with a vengeance.
by
Mar (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 155 comments)
on Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 4:42:38 PM
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