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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Rarely Do I Say This

Rarely Do I Say This

by John Cole|  February 21, 20147:48 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Military, Post-racial America

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But here is an awesome piece of news:

President Obama will correct a historical act of discrimination next month when he awards the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest commendation for combat valor, to 19 Hispanic, Jewish and African-American veterans overlooked previously because of their racial or ethnic backgrounds.

The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress into past discrimination in the ranks, and will hold a particular poignancy hosted by the nation’s first African-American president.

Even all my right-wing military friends online are thrilled about this. This was a historical injustice that needed to be corrected.

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Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    Arclite

    February 21, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    I’m sure Fox News will come up with some way to denigrate it.

    But it’s about time.

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    February 21, 2014 at 7:54 pm

    @Arclite:

    Maybe not. They have a lot of veterans/military type FoxBots.

    Good to hear this. Bittersweet, overdue, but good on recognizing these veterans.

  3. 3.

    Jerzy Russian

    February 21, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    Good news, especially if some heads on the other side explode.

  4. 4.

    MikeJ

    February 21, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    We should start a pool on the first public figure on the right to call them affirmative action medals.

  5. 5.

    hildebrand

    February 21, 2014 at 7:59 pm

    @MikeJ: I will put my money on Mark Levin.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 21, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    Ted Nugent will, I’m sure, have something to say about this.

    I do, also. About time. Heroism should NEVER know base bigotry.

  7. 7.

    Cervantes

    February 21, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    @MikeJ: Bill Kristol.

  8. 8.

    Yatsuno

    February 21, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    @MikeJ: @hildebrand: @Cervantes: Going with Sean Hannity. Because he really is that much of a dick.

  9. 9.

    dr. bloor

    February 21, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    “He’s cheapening the award by giving it to that many guys!”

    Wait for it.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    February 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    @Yatsuno: I’ll take Erick Erickson in the pool.

  11. 11.

    kindness

    February 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    The usual suspects will now whine about Obama. I tell you I’m seeing the righties getting foaming at the mouth like they do just before an election. If I have to put up with 9 months of that shit I might do something stupid.

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    February 21, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    I can hardly wait till Meet the Press on Sunday to see what John McCain thinks.

    Then David Gregory can find out whether he’s for it or not.

  13. 13.

    Petorado

    February 21, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: The WaPo said Ted issued an “apology” about that:

    “I do apologize – not necessarily to the President – but on behalf of much better men than myself,”

    … A troll to the end.

    On the other hand, it’s good to see old injustices made right. In a better world this would have happened if not so many of these were posthumous recognitions, but the screw keeps turning in the right direction, at least. Apologies matter, if they are done right.

  14. 14.

    Fuzzy

    February 21, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    FOX NEWS. Why did it take the President so long? Then they will find “a guy” to dispute one of recipients and be shocked about it unless McCain likes it.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    February 21, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    @BGinCHI: John McCain probably thinks he deserves one of those medals.

    Oh, and did you know he was a POW?

  16. 16.

    Baud

    February 21, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    Oh sure, but when are Confederate soldiers going to get their medals of honor?

  17. 17.

    LanceThruster

    February 21, 2014 at 8:31 pm


    “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

    – George Washington

  18. 18.

    Sly

    February 21, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    My uncle via marriage was the one Hispanic man in a WWII bomber wing that was almost entirely peopled with Southern whites. This was still during a time when Hispanics/Latinos, for the purposes of deployment, were considered white by the military. He was busted down to Private, IIRC, on three separate occasions for “insubordination” (translation: not responding with “Yes, sir” to some redneck who called him an “uppity Mexican”).

  19. 19.

    dr. bloor

    February 21, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    @LanceThruster:

    Of course, all bets are off if you happen to be the kid of a blah or brown whose best prospects coming out of high school mean military service.

  20. 20.

    srv

    February 21, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @LanceThruster: George Washington was wrong.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 21, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @dmsilev: Krauthammer

  22. 22.

    Ben Cisco

    February 21, 2014 at 9:02 pm

    I’ll go with any of those guys whose name can be preceded with, “Even the liberal…”

    You know, for balance.

  23. 23.

    ABMcC

    February 21, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    John: I completely agree with you and your friends on this. Awesome!!

  24. 24.

    coloradoblue

    February 21, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    … a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress…

    Oh, this is going to be interesting! Remind me who was prez 12 years ago. And which parties controlled congress in 2006. And this isn’t an executive order, this is the DOD.

    Do they dare?

    My money is on Yes, they are that stupid and full of hate.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    February 21, 2014 at 9:10 pm

    On topic: If somebody badmouths Obama for awarding Medals of Honor recommended by the military, is anyone really going to take them seriously?

    Off topic: This big-name venture capitalist dude Tim Draper says he wants to see California split into six states, one of them being Silicon Valley. I’m aware that proposals to break up the most populous American state have been around for a long time, but is there anything to this one?

  26. 26.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 21, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    Ultimate diet, I has found it! free range, no carb and gluten free. Meet the spokemodel.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    February 21, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    What will be the nutball meme?

    Obama Establishes Quota System For Military Medals.

    Count on it.

  28. 28.

    schrodinger's cat

    February 21, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    I typed my nym wrong, so WP put me in moderation, trying again;
    Ultimate diet, I has found it! free range, no carb and gluten free. Meet the spokemodel.

  29. 29.

    West of the Cascades

    February 21, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    This is great, and it’s good to see that the even though the wheels of justice on these awards ground slowly, they produced a good result.

    Does the Military ever review past Medal of Honor awards to excise them (thinking here of the 20 medals awarded to members of the 7th Cavalry for its December 1890 offensive in southwestern South Dakota)?

  30. 30.

    Citizen_X

    February 21, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    Going with Sean Hannity Rush. Because he really is that much of a dick.

    Sorry, there can only be one First Douchebag.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    February 21, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @Amir Khalid

    Sad to admit there will be way too many who will take them seriously. The ‘Obama is an illegitimate president so has no such authority’ crowd, for starters.

    If Obama developed a universal cure for cancer they’d be against it and accuse him of contravening god’s will, or some other malarkey.

  32. 32.

    cckids

    February 21, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    @Fuzzy:

    FOX NEWS

    Of course they will. But it will be because President Obama is “taking credit for a review started by Bush” (it was started 12 years ago). Ideally, to make it right for them, Obama would resign & let Bush take over, because that would be fair.

  33. 33.

    jl

    February 21, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    From the link

    ” The unusual presentation will culminate a 12-year Pentagon review ordered by Congress ”

    So, this was a Congressional initiative, started during Dub’s first term.

    Will be interesting to see which wingnut news organizations report that, rather than use the coincidence that the review was finished and the medals awarded during Obama’s term as an excuse to score some cheap racist shots.

    Let’s see how Fox News does. If Lush Rimbaugh notices, he will just rave like a maniac.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    February 21, 2014 at 9:27 pm

    @cckids

    And kind of interesting, isn’t it, that the military could so thoroughly comb through records going back so far, even in cases where records were lost to fire, yet the National Guard couldn’t come up with any more than scattered bits and pieces of Dubya’s records?

  35. 35.

    jl

    February 21, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    @cckids: Just beat me to it on when the review started. If some bogus wingnut news organization does decide to actually report some facts and history, I suppose they will follow the approach you suggest. That will be a little too transparent even for your average half-hearted white bigot, but the dead enders will buy it.

    Edit: If as a commenter above suggested, GW shows up, it will complicate the narrative. The winger news organizations might decide to move on to something else.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    February 21, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    If that Post story had the full list of recipients, I couldn’t see it on my phone. I was wondering if Guy Gabaldon, “the Pied Piper of Saipan,” had finally been awarded one. There’s been a campaign to get one for him for years:

    http://marinesmagazine.dodlive.mil/2010/12/21/the-pied-piper-of-saipan/

    Short version: he talked 1500 enemy soldiers into surrendering using the Japanese he had learned from his neighbors in east LA.

  37. 37.

    SamInMpls

    February 21, 2014 at 9:33 pm

    I think Cole is spot on here. Mamet’s army porn show “The Unit” did an entire episode centered around an African American vet from the Korean War being awarded a Silver Star fifty years later. Even wingnuts can embrace diversity when it is filtered through institutions like the military.

  38. 38.

    AnotherBruce

    February 21, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I find it interesting that these proposals seem to take place in states that come under democratic control. See also: Colorado.

    It’s not going to happen.

  39. 39.

    Sly

    February 21, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    @SamInMpls:

    Even wingnuts can embrace diversity when it is filtered through institutions like the military.

    No they can’t.

  40. 40.

    nellcote

    February 21, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’m aware that proposals to break up the most populous American state have been around for a long time, but is there anything to this one?

    No. It’s just another dudebro selfserving pipedream.

  41. 41.

    AxelFoley

    February 21, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    @dmsilev:

    @Yatsuno: I’ll take Erick Erickson in the pool.

    Poor choice of words, dmsilev. LOL

  42. 42.

    PhilbertDesanex

    February 21, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    Freepers were about 30% for his, better I than expected. Evidently some of them may have served. Also recommended read: ‘Brothers in Arms’, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the story of the 761st Tank Battalion, they were way in the Bulge, and then May1945 ignominiously disbanded.

  43. 43.

    RSA

    February 21, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    @Petorado:

    “I do apologize – not necessarily to the President – but on behalf of much better men than myself,”

    Ted Nugent seems not to understand what “on behalf of” means. Quelle surprise.

  44. 44.

    Joseph Nobles

    February 22, 2014 at 12:00 am

    No, the wingnut take is “Obama taking advantage of military heroes to make himself look good.”

  45. 45.

    Wally Ballou

    February 22, 2014 at 3:05 am

    @Joseph Nobles: This. Also, the fact that a GOP-led Congress ordered the review 12 years ago proves they’re the real antiracists, Party of Lincoln, etc.

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