The Yellow Badge of Cowardice
There was an unbelievable story in The Cove Herald last week that comes from near where George Bush and I own property: Copperas Cove, Texas. Apparently two residents: Bill and Georgia Thomas decided that the Resident in Chief deserved one of the three Purple Hearts that Bill earned in Vietnam for: “emotional wounds and scars” because people all over the world talk so badly about poor George.
This story stunned me on a day when nine US soldiers and 20 were wounded in a car bomb attack in the Iraqi province of Diyala. Over 500 Iraqis were killed or found decomposing in Baghdad last week and April ‘07 is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months for US troop fatalities. This is also a day when there is a hearing into the Army’s exploitation of Pat Tillman’s death to use him as a poster boy for patriotic fervor and unfounded hero worship. Why can’t we talk about our soldier’s heroic lives and not their tragic deaths as victims of the military industrial complex.
At the funeral of my son, Casey, a one-star General presented me with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for bravery awarded to Casey posthumously. The Thomas’ can do whatever they want with Bill’s medals, but I believe giving one to George Bush demeans Casey’s brave and honorable sacrifice. Little Georgie used his Daddy (the Congressman’s) connections to avoid serving in Vietnam and George even went so far as to go AWOL from the Alabama Air National Guard.
Casey didn’t want to go and kill people and die in his commander in chief’s war of aggression. Like the vice-commander in chief, Doomsday Dick, he had “other priorities” besides dying. Casey’s Man-Scout Badges are sitting in my grandmother’s cedar chest right next to his baby book and hand-print from pre-school.
For George, the Vietnam War Resister cum Iraqi occupation War Criminal, to say that he didn’t “deserve” the medal is an under-statement. Bush doesn’t feel emotional scars or pain, he deals them. There are many soldiers who are missing arms, legs, eyes, and souls who actually had to earn their medals under a corrupt regime that used their honor and bravery to pump up the bottom line of such companies as Doomsday Dick’s Halliburton. There are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, sons and daughters who are emotionally scarred because their loved one won’t be coming home alive from a war that never had to happen. Our arms will be aching forever because we can’t hug our loved ones. Our hearts are scarred with the pain of burying someone too early and our lives are empty with the longing to see our dear one just one more time.
The Thomas’ belong to the Fox News generation that still condones and supports a murderous regime. Mr. Thomas belongs to a generation that was scarred, maimed and killed with a genocidal fever by its corrupt regimes and he still thinks that George deserves a medal for his incompetence and callousness?
What do we do in a world where black is white? War is peace” Two and two equals five and cowardice is bravery?
We rise up and become more powerful than the special interests which use both parties to keep this nation on a constant war footing. We use our voices to be mouthpieces for peace and accountability. We march on the Capitol on May 14th to demand that there is no more business as usual and that Congress realizes that every single one of them (Democrat or Republican) who voted to fund George’s war are complicit in the bottomless pain that accompanies each death, dismemberment, or disability; without sharing in one iota of the same pain.
If George likes to receive medals that he didn’t earn, Gold Star Families for Peace is going to present him with one on April 25th, (or try to) that he does deserve and has earned abundantly: the Yellow Badge of Cowardice. It doesn’t take any courage to march other people’s children off to war. George didn’t exhibit any courage when he was put to the top of the Texas Air National Guard line by his family’s friends. George puts on his smiley photo-op face to take something from a good-hearted, yet deluded couple, that he stridently avoided earning. It doesn’t take any courage to meet with a bereaved mother, but he also refuses to do that. He travels in America with more armor and fire power than a banana republic dictator, and if he is not stopped by impeachment or other peaceful means, then we will descend into that tyranny of empire…if we aren’t already there.
Join Cindy, Gold Star Families for Peace, The Camp Casey Peace Institute, CODEPINK, Congress Reps John Conyers (D-Mi) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Ca) as we march on the Capitol on May 14th to demand our country back!Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother’s Child and Dear President Bush.
Impeach Bush and Cheney now while there is still time, before they launch Pat Robertson’s biblical “Armageddon”!
So many people, including myself hold Cindy so dear in their hearts, for wanting nothing more than preventing the same tragedy happening to other families, all based on lies.
I’m sure the comment above, meaning only to target her deepest emotions, in another meaningless attack, is seen by her as typical of the tactics to discredit her.
It’s all they got Cindy!
Impeach bush and cheney now hell, They need to be tarred and feather and turned over to the world court for crimes against humanity. That is if the world court can trie
That is if the world court can try non-humans for crimes against humanity.
I guess the other alternative is that they died due to the incompetence and utter disregard for life from the higher ups. Anyone want to bet that the buck stops pretty low on ladder?
Our condolences Cindy. Keep going. It will take every little straw of truth to eventually get to the one that breaks the camel’s back.
Best regards, Spike Baldwin
I think that it would be appropriate to give Dubya the medal that Hitler gave Henry Ford, Grand Cross of the German Eagle.
When you think you’ve heard it all, this comes along.
April 25th in Australia is Anzac Day (even spell check doesn’t know it) where Australians have a public holiday to remember the fallen. I think it is closer to your Veterans Day.
It is held on that day to commemorate the disaster in WW1 where Australian and New Zealand troops along with other allies were pinned down on the steep slopes at Gallipoli (another spell check ignorance) in modern day Turkey, until they were forced to ‘cut and run’ from an un-winnable battle. It was said to be a defining moment in developing Australia as a world nation as opposed to being just an outpost of the British.
If only we had a few more politicians that understand that cutting and running is a legitimate tactic if you are in no position of winning and that sacrificing lives to protect your own political ego is untenable.
Cindy,
Maybe, along with the “Yellow Badge of Cowardice” you can give “Dubya” the “Radioactive Weapons of Mass Destruction Medal”, (which consists of a picture of the boy emperor looking under a desk in the Oval office), that he could also wear around his neck, and when you put it over his head, (try not to strangle him), you can say, “Here they are Mr. President, try not losing them again!”
Cindy,
My heart felt thank you for all the good work you do….
In amongst these War Criminals who are so heartless….
Cindy you will be seen by history as a true patriot….
I forgot, there are also the “Illegal Rendition Ribbon”, the “Torture Trophy, the “Domestic Spying Scholarship”, the “Destroy Habeus Corpus Citation”, the “Illegal Detention Decoration”, the “Destruction of Civil Liberties Laurel”, the “Illegal Invasion of a Sovereign Country Cup”, the “Illiterate President is Speaking Souvenir”, the “Vacation While New Orleans Drowns Blue Ribbon”, the “Ostracise the Rest of the World Boodby Prize”, the “George Washington Memorial I Never Told the Truth Keepsake”, and finally, the “Impeachment Crown” he so richly deserves!
All clever ideas for names of the medals this president deserves. How about one final award made of depleted uranium inscribed with the words: Mission Accomplished.
Knowing the Tillman story, I think others need to ask about their loved ones too!
dcostello
Why not take all that hate and rage you have for a dead soldier’s Mother and join the “surge”? I’m sure you could even shoot someone, if you don’t get blown up first! Let me guess, your a chickenhawk who never served a day defending our country. The job of soldier is to die. Get an education idiot!
Cindy Sheehan has done more for the peace and justice movement than anyone else I can think of. To call her “whinny” (I think you meant “whiny” dcostello), is absurd beyond words. She’s standing up to the criminals who are responsible for the death of her son! If more of the survivors’ families would show such courage, I’m sure this travesty would end.
I meant to say more of the fallen soldiers’ families–sorry.
dcostello you are as stupid as it is humanly possible to be