Thursday, September 27, 2007

Iraq vet plans to return his medals in protest


Not Josh Gaines*


Some people do have the courage of their convictions and here's one of them:
An Iraq war veteran said Tuesday he is returning his military medals in what anti-war groups are calling a rare and powerful protest. Josh Gaines, 27, plans to mail the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and National Defense Service Medal to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He said he will do so during a protest scheduled for Wednesday in Madison. "I'm going to give those back because I truly feel that I did not defend my nation and I did not help with the Global War on Terrorism," said Gaines, who lives in Madison. "If anything, this conflict has bred more terrorism in the Middle East."

First Lt Ehren Watada comes to mind. He had much more to risk than the loss of a few medals for exhibiting the courage of his convictions, but each does what s/he can. They are both heroes.

*I'm going for art here. Come on. Go along with it. And no, I don't think he's peeing. It just looks that way. OK, I thought that too. We both need help.

Via Signs of the Times.

Labels:

2 Comments:

Blogger Chuck said...

There are more of those guys speaking out everyday. Good for them and the more the better.

Its sad (and more) to know that this is going to be a generational war. Look what bush has done.

9/27/2007 07:20:00 PM  
Blogger SPIIDERWEB™ said...

I try my best not to look at what Bush has done, but there's no escaping it.

I've known Vietnam vets who were almost completely adjusted to civilian lives and could put Vietnam out of their minds most of the time. Or it seemed so to me.

This will, in many ways, be a lost generation. Most likely very few of the current soldiers will ever lead "normal" lives.

9/27/2007 07:29:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home