Adding Insult To Injury

Houston Chronicle: Short of Purple Hearts, Navy tells vet to buy own PEARLAND — Korean War veteran Nyles Reed, 75, opened an envelope last week to learn a Purple Heart had been approved for injuries he sustained as a Marine on June 22, 1952. But there was no medal. Just a certificate and a form stating that the medal was "out of stock." "I can imagine, of course, with what's going on in Irhe Korean War, U.S.Militaryaq and Afghanistan, there's a big shortage," Reed said. "At least, I would imagine so." The form letter from the Navy Personnel Command told Reed he could wait 90 days and resubmit an application, or buy his own medal. After waiting 55 years, however, Reed decided to pay $42 for his own Purple Heart and accompanying ribbon — plus state sales taxes — at a military surplus store. If this bullshit doesn't piss you off, you're a ghoul. What the fuck is next, huh? Are soldiers gonna have to buy their own ammo and Humvees?

Betrayal

Mike Lupica is a sports columist who just started writing political commentary for The New York Daily News. Surprisingly, he's very good. Here, he does a brutal and well-deserved smackdown on John McCain: Candidate's Meltdown Prez run dealt fatal blow as McCain sticks to his guns on Iraq The war takes John McCain now. McCain is not a real casualty of Iraq. He is not Spec. Roberto Causor, 21, of San Jose, Calif., who died in Samarra on July 7 from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire. And McCain is not Sgt. Trista Moretti, 27, of South Plainfield, N.J., who gave her life in Iraq, in George Bush's war there, when insurgents attacked her unit with indirect fire on the 25th of June. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a hero of a bad war himself once, does not leave his life in Iraq the way Spec. Karen Clifton, 22, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., did on June 21 in Baghdad, when she died of wounds suffered when her vehicle was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. But McCain, who is just back from another visit to Iraq, effectively leaves his dream about being President there, his certainty that this was his year and his time to at least be his party's nominee. McCain's two top aides quit him yesterday. One was his manager, Terry Nelson, and the other is one of his big game-planners, John Weaver. Nelson and Weaver quit almost at the same time McCain was defending Bush's war, defending it to the end, on the floor of the Senate. Nelson and Weaver quit at a time when McCain had already fired some people from a campaign that was staggering around like one of those Lindsay Lohans coming out of a club, fired some and cut the pay of others and admitted that he was running a distant third in Republican money. And maybe McCain will tell himself that it was a lack of money that got him, or lack of a coherent strategy, or even old age. The war got John McCain. I don't get John McCain. Bush, Cheney, Rove, and the other chickenhawks who dragged the United States into this useless war I can figure out. Since these punks never saw a day of combat in their lives, I can understand why they fucked up Iraq from the beginning and why they keep getting everything wrong. They don't know. But John McCain, a genuine, honest-to-God veteran who served valiantly in Vietnam, should know better. And please don't talk to me about his politics, O.K.? It's a lousy excuse. Congressman John Murtha, another war hero who saw action in Vietnam and Iraq, is probably even more narrow-minded and conservative than McCain. But Murtha couldn't shut up and watch Bush send soldiers off to die in Iraq and Afghanistan anymore. Murtha knows better. But John McCain, in spite of knowing better, betrayed both his fellow soldiers and himself. It's contemptible. I don't get it.

Blackout

It's an ugly paradox. In a racist culture that brutalizes and marginalizes them, people of color have died in white men's wars throughout history because that was the only way to finance a piece of the American Dream. Sure, it's inequitable and dangerous, but I know too many brothers and sisters that were able to get good jobs and buy houses only because they enlisted. My father was able to open his barber shop because he earned a degree during his time spent in the Navy in World War II. The military has always been the biggest employer for minorities. Of course, the nasty contradictions staring African-American soldiers in the face were as clear as a "White Only" sign. It was a bitter joke to fight and die for "freedom" overseas when you couldn't even shit in the same place as a white man. Every black man during the turbulent years of the 60s knew what Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali meant when he defiantly said, "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger." The struggle of people of color wasn't just confined to the United States. It was global. So what happens when the black pawns refuse to play this game of imperialistic chess anymore? In a fascinating and provocative essay, Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson explains how and why enlistments of African-Americans are at their lowest numbers since the all-volunteer military was created in 1973. "This is not a black people's war," an African-American veteran of the Iraq war said. "This is not a poor people's war. This is an oilman's war." Gregory Black is a retired Navy diver who created the website Black Military World.com. Black says that quote is representative of how African-American veterans feel about the Iraq invasion and occupation. "African-Americans detest this war," Black said yesterday in a phone interview. "Everybody kind of knows the truth behind this war. It's a cash cow for the military defense industry, when you look at the money these contractors are making. African-Americans saw this at the beginning of the war and now the rest of the country has figured it out. It's not benefiting us in the least." Asked about the reference to an "oilman's war," Black said, "It's basically about oil, basically about money. It's an economic war." He said veterans are saying they are tired and burned out. "Guys are saying we're halfway around the world fighting people of color under the guise of democracy and we can't see how it's benefited anyone," Black said. "It's hard to fight halfway around the world for people's freedom when you're not sure you have it at home." People of color wearing khakis and carrying guns are the hired help, that's all. To the aristocracy, the soldiers are no different than the faceless non-entities who wash the cars, mow the lawn, and clean up the stinking mess in the kid's diapers. Yeah, I hear all sort of noise about "supporting the troops", but you and I know that's code for "Hell, no, I ain't going." Except African-Americans have translated the code, too. "In 2000," Jackson reported, "23.5 percent of Army recruits were African-American. By 2005, the percentage dropped to 13.9 percent. National Public Radio this week quoted a Pentagon statistic that said that African-American propensity to join the military had dropped to 9 percent." Hell, no, I ain't going. Black said that he still believes "without a shadow of a doubt" that the military still provides one of the best opportunities for African-Americans to advance in a nation where civilian opportunities remain checkered. But he said the military may underestimate how young people are absorbing the horrific images in Iraq's chaos. Pentagon officials largely attribute the drop in African-American interest in the armed forces to "influencers," parents, coaches, ministers, and school counselors who urge youth not to enlist. "I think some of that is true," Black said. "But I taught ROTC in high school, and the kids themselves are a lot smarter about this stuff. They see the news and they can't justify going into a fight for something they have no faith in." I remember seeing a poster that read: "What If They Gave A War And Nobody Came?" Still, it's a good thing for the military that there's enough poor whites in this country to make up the difference, huh?