COULTER - Cleland No War Hero!
Coulter has become the thing she claims to hate -- a caricature of a 1970s hippy spitting at men in uniform -- because she wants us all to stop talking about George W. Bush's frivilous relationship to his National Guard service.
Anne Coulter writes, "It is simply a fact that Max Cleland was not injured by enemy fire in Vietnam," a brilliantly trenchant and valuable observation, and undeniably true. She goes on to lie, "He was not in combat," and also to lie, "he was not in the battle of Khe Sanh, as many others [including, apparently, the US Army] have implied." ~M. Bivens
Some juicy excerpts from fantastic articles by Joe Conason and The Nation:
Salon:
Like many other conservatives, Coulter has watched with increasing fury as Cleland and other Democrats discussed the president's spotty service record in the National Guard. By last week, she had become so enraged that she wrote a column -- posted on patriotic Web sites such as the Heritage Foundation's Townhall.com and David Horowitz's FrontPageMagazine.com -- composed largely of insults to Cleland's integrity and record of service in Vietnam.
"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," she demanded. Coulter went on to mock the grenade explosion that wounded Cleland so grievously as "an accident during a routine non-combat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends." With leaden sarcasm, she noted that Cleland "could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman." As she surely knows by now, he didn't drop a grenade at all. He picked up a grenade that he thought had fallen off his web gear.
As he learned many years later, another, less experienced soldier had dropped that lethal object -- and had mistakenly straightened the pin so that it detonated instantly when Cleland picked it up. There was nothing "stupid" about what he did; soldiers don't leave explosives lying around for their comrades to step on.
The Nation:
But wait. Once again, here is the US Army's own description of how, four days before he lost his limbs, Captain Max Cleland "distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April 1968 ... during an enemy attack near Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam.
"When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Capt. 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, Capt. Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment, which had been damaged by enemy fire."
So in building her extremely worthy and important case that Cleland's no hero, how does Coulter finesse this?
By omitting it.
Entirely.
She titles her latest ramble "File Under: 'Omission Accomplished'."
No kidding!
Anne Coulter writes, "It is simply a fact that Max Cleland was not injured by enemy fire in Vietnam," a brilliantly trenchant and valuable observation, and undeniably true. She goes on to lie, "He was not in combat," and also to lie, "he was not in the battle of Khe Sanh, as many others [including, apparently, the US Army] have implied." ~M. Bivens
Some juicy excerpts from fantastic articles by Joe Conason and The Nation:
Salon:
Like many other conservatives, Coulter has watched with increasing fury as Cleland and other Democrats discussed the president's spotty service record in the National Guard. By last week, she had become so enraged that she wrote a column -- posted on patriotic Web sites such as the Heritage Foundation's Townhall.com and David Horowitz's FrontPageMagazine.com -- composed largely of insults to Cleland's integrity and record of service in Vietnam.
"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," she demanded. Coulter went on to mock the grenade explosion that wounded Cleland so grievously as "an accident during a routine non-combat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends." With leaden sarcasm, she noted that Cleland "could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman." As she surely knows by now, he didn't drop a grenade at all. He picked up a grenade that he thought had fallen off his web gear.
As he learned many years later, another, less experienced soldier had dropped that lethal object -- and had mistakenly straightened the pin so that it detonated instantly when Cleland picked it up. There was nothing "stupid" about what he did; soldiers don't leave explosives lying around for their comrades to step on.
The Nation:
But wait. Once again, here is the US Army's own description of how, four days before he lost his limbs, Captain Max Cleland "distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April 1968 ... during an enemy attack near Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam.
"When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Capt. 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, Capt. Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment, which had been damaged by enemy fire."
So in building her extremely worthy and important case that Cleland's no hero, how does Coulter finesse this?
By omitting it.
Entirely.
She titles her latest ramble "File Under: 'Omission Accomplished'."
No kidding!
Comments
And a maaaan baby. Didn't you hear that Ann and Drudge flew to SF to have a same sex marriage? hehe
It must be frustrating.
Now if you want to call her a lying, chain-smoking boozebag...
If that were the case and she married Drudge... would that be a same sex marriage?
Originally posted by Fran441
I guess 'Ann' can file this under the category of 'liberal slander and propoganda'.
Yeah... be wary of women with adam's apples. I saw a doll of her for sale at Tower Records... I wanted to buy it just so I could burn it. Even in doll form she pisses me off.
Edit:
Voooodoooo.
Anyone know a good priestess.
Hypocrits.
It's fricking PARODY. No one thinks she's a crossdresser.
Oh that's right... SOME conservatives don't know the difference.
Originally posted by chu_bakka
hehe... such a baby.
It's fricking PARODY. No one thinks she's a crossdresser.
Oh that's right... SOME conservatives don't know the difference.
Of course no one thinks she's a crossdresser. That's the problem--your parody's implicitly affirms that being a crossdresser is somehow wrong or deviant.
Of course no one thinks she's a crossdresser. That's the problem--your parody's implicitly affirms that being a crossdresser is somehow wrong or deviant.
Of course not, just ask Rudy Guliani.
Being Ann Coulter is wrong... I'm making FUN of HER.
It's easy... you should try it.
Unless of course she is a crossdresser and then I would be making fun of one... and she/he would STILL deserve it. hehe
That's the sort of thing that irritates Ms. Coulter. Christ, Zeus and Marx, what a bitch, eh?
Then, of course, there's Senator Clelland's voting record... and John Kerry's come to think of it.
Aries 1B
""Cleland was no war hero, but his sacrifice was great. ... Democratic Senate candidate Max Cleland is a victim of war, not a casualty of combat. He lost three limbs on a long-forgotten hill near Khe Sanh because of some American's mistake ..." (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 1996)
The story started to change only last year when the Democrats began citing Cleland's lost Senate seat as proof that Republicans hate war heroes. Indeed, until the myth of Republicans attacking Cleland for his lack of "patriotism" became central to the Democrats' narrative against George Bush, Cleland spoke only honorably and humbly about his accident. "How did I become a war hero?" he said to The Boston Globe reporter in 1997. "Simple. The grenade went off."
Cleland even admitted that, but for his accident, he would have "probably been some frustrated history teacher, teaching American government at some junior college." (OK, I got that wrong: I said he'd probably be a pharmacist.)
Cleland's true heroism came after the war, when he went on to build a productive life for himself. That is a story of inspiration and courage. He shouldn't let the Democrats tarnish an admirable life by "sexing up" his record in order to better attack George Bush."
The hubris!
Aries 1B
Originally posted by Existence
Of course no one thinks she's a crossdresser. That's the problem--your parody's implicitly affirms that being a crossdresser is somehow wrong or deviant.
Haha. Has anyone noticed how Existence has just gone down this long road into political oblivion since he got tangled up with Howard Dean?
But ya can't lose limbs from grenades doing postal duty in Alabama either.
Is she claiming he was never shot at? Sounds like she's claiming he was never in harms way.
He is a war hero and recieved a medal.
http://thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?pid=1274
"Max Cleland was with the Battalion Forward Command Post in heavy combat involving the attack of the 1st Cavalry Division up the valley to relieve the Marines who were besieged and surrounded at the Khe Shan Firebase. The whole surrounding area was an active combat zone ... Max, the Battalion Signal Officer, was engaged in a combat mission I personally ordered to increase the effectiveness of communications between the battalion combat forward and rear support elements: e.g. Erect a radio relay antenna on a mountain top. By the way, at one point the battalion rear elements came under enemy artillery fire so everyone was in harm's way.
"As they were getting off the helicopter, Max saw the grenade on the ground and he instinctively went for it. Soldiers in combat don't leave grenades lying around on the ground. Later, in the hospital, he said he thought it was his own but I doubt the concept of 'ownership' went through his mind in the split seconds involved in reaching for the grenade. Nearly two decades later another soldier came forward and admitted it was actually his grenade. Does ownership of the grenade really matter? It does not."
Cleland's former C.O. adds: "This Ann Coulter has written real slime."
Coulter says she is responding to "insinuations that I 'lied' about Senator Max Cleland." Insinuations? For my part I'm not insinuating anything: Ann Coulter lied.