Validation of Valor
Oct 16, 2013 22:26:13 #
FoolBuster
Loc: Irvine, CA
Just yesterday I heard the story of retired Army Captain William Swenson and his late in coming award of the Medal of Honor, earned in a tense combat mission, in Afghanistan in 2009, judged by many, to be one of the most, if not the most intense ever in that region. Because the outline of the story were gripping, I hunted down a handful of write-ups on the Battle of Ganjgal, and in the process, not only uncovered details that have only sparsely been alluded to, but a rare clip of raw video of one segment of the event as it unfolded.
One of my initial reactions in reading about the ceremony presenting the medal at the White House, was disdain that a counterfeit Commander In Chief was once again posturing as a champion of America and the armed forces. I resigned myself to see it not as Obama, but as the office of the Presidency conferring the award.
Nothing illustrates my reluctance to see our military be exploited in global conflicts where the national interest is not obvious and the objectives of the mission are not clearly defined, more than a situation like this, where soldiers are given a combat assignment and deployed with a ball and chain shacked to their ankles. Politically dictated rules of engagement are absurd in tribal enclaves where resisting opposition troops is a community effort, rendering everyone but the smallest children as enemy combatants.
Despite Obama exploiting Captain Swenson's better late than never recognition the circumstances behind the delay carry some damaging disclosures with regard to how our soldiers were hampered in their duties by external political control of their mission. None of these will be unfamiliar to veterans of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://blastedfools.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/validation-of-honor/
One of my initial reactions in reading about the ceremony presenting the medal at the White House, was disdain that a counterfeit Commander In Chief was once again posturing as a champion of America and the armed forces. I resigned myself to see it not as Obama, but as the office of the Presidency conferring the award.
Nothing illustrates my reluctance to see our military be exploited in global conflicts where the national interest is not obvious and the objectives of the mission are not clearly defined, more than a situation like this, where soldiers are given a combat assignment and deployed with a ball and chain shacked to their ankles. Politically dictated rules of engagement are absurd in tribal enclaves where resisting opposition troops is a community effort, rendering everyone but the smallest children as enemy combatants.
Despite Obama exploiting Captain Swenson's better late than never recognition the circumstances behind the delay carry some damaging disclosures with regard to how our soldiers were hampered in their duties by external political control of their mission. None of these will be unfamiliar to veterans of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://blastedfools.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/validation-of-honor/
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