The Shield of Achilles: How the radicals celebrated Memorial Day

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

How the radicals celebrated Memorial Day

Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day, and was enacted to honor Union soldiers of the US Civil War. After WWI, it was changed to include the fallen from all our nation's wars. But some myopic people can't see past the current conflict or forget partisan squabbles even for one day.

Just a few examples from around the Internet:

Brandon Friedman (the anti-veteran veteran) at the Daily Kos invokes Memorial Day to claim that anyone who opposes S 22, the so-called "21 century GI Bill" is actually disrespecting the troops. Well, then, I guess I'm disrespecting myself, because I oppose it (the bill is a terrible idea, but more on that later). Not surprisingly, Think Progress uses the same issue to abuse the holiday with this wildly misleading headline:

Conservatives Spend Memorial Day Weekend Explaining Their Opposition To GI Bill

In typical fashion, Juan Cole celebrates it by taking a partisan swipe at the current administration. His inspiration comes from a CBS news report that claims the number of suicides by vets has been grossly underestimated. Problem is, even if the numbers are correct (and that's a big assumption), they include ALL veterans: WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc. Does anyone even think outside their current talking points anymore? The report also says that:

Nearly one in five service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (approximately 300,000) have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or major depression

Note the careful wording here, bordering on outright dishonesty: "have post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms". It's not saying that one in five were diagnosed with PTSD, but just had symptoms of it. However, you might not notice that if you read it quickly. And these symptoms (e.g. nightmares, irritability, sleep problems, trouble concentrating, irritability, anger, poor concentration, blackouts, or difficulty remembering things) are so broad they would include any veteran who ever returned from any war anywhere. Heck, they would include 99% of all people at one time or another. That's not to say that PTSD is not real - the point is that wildly exaggerating the numbers is no way at all to honor those who have faithfully served their country.

Hyper partisan screed hits a new low at the Huffington Post with this headline: "Dead Troops Remembered by President Who Had Them Killed". The author, Bob Geiger, claims to be a veteran, and claims to love his country. Strange that he never once puts any blame whatsoever on those that actually killed those soldiers (e.g. terrorists). Is that too much to ask? Of course, Crooks and Liars is all over it as well.

Michael Moore puts up a piece praising (surprise) - himself!

Finally, showing they truly understand the meaning of this day, from the front page of Alternet: "Let's celebrate Memorial Day by remembering the world's first openly gay politician"!