Robb DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Sun Feb-20-11 08:35 PM
Original message
Hero's unwelcome: Wounded Iraq vet jeered at Columbia
Source: NY Post
Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.
"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.
(snip)
Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.
(snip)
More than half of the students who spoke at the meeting -- the second of three hearings on the subject -- expressed opposition to ROTC's return. Many of the 200 students in the audience held anti-military placards with slogans such as, "1 in 3 female soldiers experiences sexual assault in the military."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/hero_unwel...
trumad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 08:38 PM
Response to Original message
2. Uhh----this is a Murdoch rag...believe it at your own risk.
mysterysoup (8 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Mon Feb-21-11 11:21 AM
Response to Reply #5
73. Why should veterans of imperialist wars get automatic respect?
They have volunteered, for money, to conduct the day to day business of US hegemony. That does not make them "heroes" in my book.
ZombieHorde Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Mon Feb-21-11 06:16 PM
Response to Reply #73
95. Vets are a sacred cow in the US. Our automatic respect for them is not based on reason anymore. nt
Zhade (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Tue Feb-22-11 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #95
124. Agreed. Of course, I do not automatically respect them.
I don't automatically disrespect them either -- I mean, I'm from a very military family -- but nor do I genuflect in their presence.
I also don't buy into the "they protect your freedoms" horseshit, since THAT hasn't been true since WWII at the latest.
Brave? Sure. Doing the right thing? Not in my view. Unwitting pawns in maintenance of a decaying empire? Almost universally so.
ThomCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Tue Feb-22-11 06:28 AM
Response to Reply #5
115. Don't ever believe the Post.
Just because they are protesting ROTC's presence and insulting racism in the military, sexism in the military, and homophobia in the military DOES NOT mean that anyone insulted this vet personally, or personally called him racist or anything else.
This is very blatant and obvious propaganda writing 101. Twist the context of any protest so that the protesters seem to be protesting something beloved. Make the public hate them for the appearing to attack that beloved thing. Never let those protesters make their own case and say what they were really protesting.
Does the military really have a horrible record for discrimination? Yes.
Does the military really have a horrible epidemic of sexual violence on their hands? Yes.
Does the military really cover up all that sexual violence and protect the rapists, while usually doing nothing to help the women? Yes. Actually, far worse than nothing. Instead of doing nothing, they often discharge the women so they can't get even get VA medical care and/or mental health care that they deserve to try to recover. That's actively doing more harm to their own women soldiers, while they protect the male rapists, so they can cover up the problem and deny it exists.
So, do the protesters have very valid reasons they wouldn't want ROTC recruiting students on their campus? Hell Yes!
Does ANY of this mean that a soldier was ever insulted personally? No. For all we know, he could have sat there and watched the protest without ever saying a word, and without a single word ever being directed at him.
But the NYPost wouldn't be able to grab their readers with an emotional story if they told you that. So even if nobody said a word about that vet, they'd insist that every word the protesters said about the military was a personal insult to every vet who ever fought.
Because according to a right-wing rag like the NYPost, every vet is immensely proud of the wars and everything they stand for, of course. Every Vet and active duty member of the military supported everything Bush ever said from the very beginning, leading up to the wars and during the wars. And they were all proud to go and fight these wars, and believed that these wars were absolutely urgent and necessary for the survival of the United Stated of America. And if you ever dared to disagree with anything Bush said or did then the NYPost has happily declared that you simply must just hated the troops.
Keep that in mind and consider the source whenever you see something from the NYPost.
madmax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 08:42 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hope it's bullshit.
Our soldiers don't deserve this Vietnam type of return home treatment.
I didn't support either war but, everytime I see a soldier I thank him/her for their service.
trumad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 09:06 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. Uh---the Vietam thing was nothing more than Right Wing horseshit
and it was dis-proven a long time ago.
npk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Sun Feb-20-11 09:52 PM
Response to Reply #9
16. You know I didn't even look at the source
But I should have. I guess I should have stated that "IF" that happened it would be very shameful.
EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Sun Feb-20-11 10:06 PM
Response to Reply #9
20. Yup. n/t
joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 10:55 PM
Response to Reply #13
34. He said something stupid, I think mostly they were being respectful and NYP...
...is distorting what happened.
I don't care if you're a war hero with every decoration possible, doesn't preclude you from being laughed at for saying something stupid.
mysterysoup (8 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Mon Feb-21-11 11:25 AM
Response to Reply #47
75. A "courtesey" (sic)? We should be polite to war mongers?
What's this warrior worship about? People here know the record of US aggression all around the world. Why so much support for ROTC, which trains the personnel to carry out this unholy mission?
zinnisking (142 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 09:47 PM
Response to Original message
15. The biggest problem I have with stories like this...
War vets are heroes by default. My cousin is an Iraq vet. While I love him like no other, I don't consider him a hero for one ****ing second.
FailureToCommunicate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Sun Feb-20-11 10:56 PM
Response to Reply #26
35. "Other parts of the world are plotting to kill you right now!" " I was shot 9
Edited on Sun Feb-20-11 10:57 PM by FailureToCommunicate
times but only spent two days in Walter Reed..."
:rofl:
No wonder they heckled this phony ROTC shill.
Bragi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Mon Feb-21-11 07:47 AM
Response to Original message
52. Was the vet a paid shill for the military?
If so, then it isn't surprising that the anti-military students jeered im.
EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Mon Feb-21-11 10:31 AM
Response to Reply #57
68. I would like to know how he came to be a speaker as well.
Edited on Mon Feb-21-11 10:31 AM by EFerrari
This is a little too convenient.
EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Mon Feb-21-11 10:45 AM
Response to Reply #69
70. Misbehave? If I heard a speaker peddling that fearmongering crap
it would have been my duty to boo him, too.
mysterysoup (8 posts) Mon Feb-21-11 11:21 AMWanna know what makes it into "my book" DUchebag?! Losers like you that hate our military and hate our Country.
Response to Reply #5
73. Why should veterans of imperialist wars get automatic respect? They have volunteered, for money, to conduct the day to day business of US hegemony. That does not make them "heroes" in my book.
trumad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Sun Feb-20-11 09:06 PMDisproven? By who? The ones doing the spitting?
Response to Reply #6
8. Uh---the Vietam thing was nothing more than Right Wing horseshit
and it was dis-proven a long time ago.
Disproven? By who? The ones doing the spitting?
In my perfect world a Vietnam Vet should be able to punch Jane Fonda dead in the face for every story about a vet being spit on in Bob Greene's book, Homecoming.
I was neat, clean, dressed properly with a short military haircut and traveling with a seabag...had been military but was out by then. When in we were told not to travel in uniform unless necessary and to not retaliate if confronted by the hippies. Wellllll....the hippies of the day got wise to that so anyone looking like me was assumed to be active military and an easy target for their screaming, spitting fits of rage. A hippy made the mistake of displaying his scorn for me. I slapped him hard and kicked his ass...(more like a very lite scuffle over in a couple of seconds)...he ran off looking for what I'm sure the day before he had been calling "pigs"....nothing ever came of it.