Take My Word For It There's a lot of bad stuff floating around on the Internet. Even innocent, everyday folk are inundated with unwanted spam in their e-mailboxes. It might behoove the people in government to limit that kind of cyber-junk mail, but something tells me there are too many of our representatives being sent on cyber-junkets by industry lobbyists for that to happen any time soon. It's the same thing with cable TV rates, which were supposed to be held at bay but were not, and the price of music CDs at the record stores, which were supposed to come down to a reasonable price (we're talking years ago). But this isn't about that. This is about the worst kind of electronically distributed bilge, which gets passed around from person to person like a bad virus. It isn't meant to attack your hard drive, but rather intended to warp your sense of political values. One of my alert operatives forwarded this one to me, and it struck me as being the kind of outright propaganda usually reserved for monarchy. Some excerpts: Have you noticed a difference in the salute given by our military men and women as President Bush walks by? Most folks would not notice anything, but those of us who have served in the military see it right away ... When President Bush leaves his helicopter or Air Force One, the honor guards salute and face him as he disembarks, then turn their faces towards him as he passes by. They continue to salute his back as he walks away. This kind of salute has not been seen in the previous eight years, though it is customary courtesy to the Commander-in-Chief ... (Executive officer LTC) Brian Birdwell was badly burned and in the hospital when President Bush visited him. Our President spent time and prayed with Brian. As he was getting ready to leave, he went to the foot of Brian's bed and saluted. He held his salute until Brian was able to raise his burned and bandaged arm, ever so slowly, in return. The Commander-in-Chief almost never initiates a salute, except in the case of a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. The injured soldier did not have to return the salute. But he did, out of respect to his President – a Soldiers' President ... I was so impressed by this true act of respect for our military people by our President! He really does get it ... He is earning the respect of the military community, not expecting it -- as most have and would. Ahem. Excuse me. Well, what can you say about that? It probably reads a lot better in Ari Fleischer's original handwriting. I notice no mention was made of how much respect the military community has for Vice President Dick Cheney (who hasn't been seen since popping out briefly on Groundhog Day ... six more weeks of winter, indeed). From there, it launches into a very unmilitary atmosphere, citing Bush's faith in the Lord and such, making him out to be every bit as messianic as the average fanatical Muslim terrorist must consider Osama bin Laden to be: What a blessing to have a professing Christian as President ... Please take a moment after you read this to "pray for him" ... He truly does have the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pray that God will sustain him and give him wisdom and discernment in his decisions. Pray for his protection and that of his family ... And after you have prayed, send this to everyone on your e-mail list ... Our President needs Christians, Democrats and Republicans alike, to be praying for him ... As this makes the e-mail rounds, eventually there could literally be millions of people praying for him, and for our Great Country. Of course, my initial response was to think about how it might feel to receive from this great country the remains of your son, with whom Bush shared such a deep and mutual respect, in the form of an urn full of ashes and chunks of charred bone. And I wonder what the parents of these young men, who have to die for what George W. Bush believes in, will pray for next. But that's not fair of me, for I never served (and I suspect that the slimy propagandist who wrote that never did, either). So I forwarded the e-mail to a guy I know who served three years in the United States Army. He was a tank driver in the Armored Infantry, stationed in Germany, where he would have been a first-responder to any kind of destabilizing situation on that side of the Atlantic Ocean. With great respect for his opinion, I requested only that he "read this and then tell me the actual protocol with regard to the official military man's salute." His response was rather direct, which is something I have learned you can expect from just about anyone who has given up years of his life to serve his country. In between learning where the vocal chords are in the throat in order to cut them for a non-screaming kill, and filing our pistol rounds for a shredding effect, I learned a little bit about drill instruction ...Here's what I know about turning heads etc ... When we were part of a parade in Germany to greet the new boss, we were actually marching across "the president" as he sat and watched. We did execute a salute to the general and made an "eyes right" motion where we did turn our head to look at him, and at the command of "eyes front" we would turn our heads back forward and drop our salute ...I was never part of a sequence where we had to stand and salute someone passing before us. My brigade spent more time doing far more important deeds than saluting presidents, such as burying veterans in the American Flag, of which I was a part of 8 funeral details, and set a new standard for excellence in that field (THAT is on paper my brotha, along with the medal). The only salute I would give a president would be the one finger salute, Gary Indiana style. I would rather honor real heroes by committing their bodies to the land they loved. What I gather from his answer is that soldiers do as they are commanded, which applies to every last thing they do. So when the military orders them to burn the bodies of their fallen comrades in the Iraqi desert, they will do it. And when they are ordered to stare at Dubya's back while he walks past them on his shining path to glory, they will do that, too. They don't even move their eyes unless ordered to do so; that whole line about how they only do it out of respect for the man is bunch of nonsense. It's kind of hard for anyone to question the patriotism behind the honest response of a soldier who was awarded a medal for his honorable service in memorializing this country's veterans. Of course, I wouldn't be inclined to argue with him about it any case. I know better. He really is my brotha. My baby brother, as a matter of fact ... and I trust him a hell of a lot more than I trust George W. Bush. Paul Heller (with a little help from SPC Vincent J. Heller) Paul Heller 02/18/03 << back to the archives
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