I Cogitate
| Recent Posts | My Best Blogs | Archives | Favorite Quotes | Links | Contact |
Gary Karpius gets it half right
Hats off to Gary Kurpius, at least for a moment
Now we have ripped the top brass of The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars for their toadyism and obeisance to any utterance that drips from the mouth of the President or Vice President of the United States so, in fairness, we congratulate the VFW's Gary Kurpius for his stand in the following instance.
In Clash With Marines, Reservists Gain Ally in VFW'Supporting the troops mission' can be and is sometimes completely different from 'supporting the mission,' especially so when the definition of the 'mission' vis-a-vis Iraq gets changed about once a week as part of a warped version of mission creep. Kurpius knows better.
David Montgomery
Washington Post
June 2, 2007
The national commander of the proud, patriotic, 2.4 million strong Veterans of Foreign Wars (motto: "Honor the dead by helping the living") took one look at the mushrooming dispute between three antiwar Marine reservists and the U.S. Marine Corps, and knew where his sympathies lay: with the protesters.
"What the Marine Corps is trying to do is hush up and punish these individuals who served our country," Gary Kurpius, the national commander, said in a telephone interview. "All they're doing is exercising the same democratic voice we're trying to instill over in Iraq right now."
The Marines have accused the three reservists, all members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, of wearing their uniforms during political protests and making "disrespectful" or "disloyal" statements. All three were honorably discharged from active duty, but now face "other than honorable" discharges from the inactive reserve, which could affect future employment and veterans benefits.
The VFW issued a blistering statement on the controversy yesterday. Headline: "VFW to Corps: Don't Stifle Freedom of Speech."
We must however disagree with Kurdius' reasoning on a separate subject in the very next paragraph:
Kurpius, an Army vet who fought in Vietnam, doesn't even agree with the protesters. "We're pretty much on record supporting the troops, and if you're going to support the troops, you're going to have to support their mission," he said. "I may disagree with the message . . . but I and my organization will always defend their right to say it."
We also ask, call it out of naivete, why does it seem to be the peons of the military who are threatened with hammer and tong when the generals like torturists Geoffrey Miller and Ricardo Sanchez escape even a pointed finger? Could it be because they can name names, times, places and orders they received and are therefore too dangerous to pursue.
Here's the link to the complete article.
top
RSS feed
| Recent Posts | My Best Blogs | Archives | Favorite Quotes | Links | Contact |