From the AP this morning:
Man honored for war record exposé
Vietnam vet found hundreds had falsified details of service
DALLAS, Dec. 2 -- A Vietnam veteran who exposed more than 1,200 people trying to capitalize on bogus or inflated Vietnam war records has been saluted with a military honor.
That's cool. What he did was a service to this country. Unfortunately, he missed the biggest and most obvious target of all.
I wonder why?
The rest of the story:
B.G. "JUG" BURKETT received the Army's Distinguished Civilian Service Award on Monday from former President George H.W. Bush at the Bush Library in College Station.
"Thank you for not nailing my son," the elder Bush reportedly said (in my parallel universe) "Here's a medal. Go have a beer, Jug."
"He exposed a mass distortion of history that cost taxpayers billions of dollars" in undeserved veterans benefits, said John W. Nicholson, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "He returned to the Vietnam veterans their good name."
And yet Bush is allowed to continue to piss on thier good names (and graves) by perpetuating the lie that is his military record.
Burkett's mission began in 1986 with his efforts to raise funds for the Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Dallas. Many people refused to donate, Burkett said, because they believed they would be helping drug-abusing psychopaths with no desire to work or contribute to society.
Goddam Democrats... ptooey!
Burkett started his own research to find out who fought in Vietnam and to debunk some of the myths about Vietnam veterans. Through the work, he exposed more than 1,200 people, including politicians and entertainers, who lied about or exaggerated their claims of serving in the Vietnam War.
Yah missed one, Jug.
Not all his research has to do with exposing fake veterans. In a 1998 book, "Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History," Burkett and co-author Glenna Whitley challenged the belief that young and poor minority draftees fought and died in higher numbers in Vietnam. They found that 75 percent of those killed were volunteers, not draftees.
Man, am I ever glad they cleared that up!
Ya see, Jug was having problems raising money for that monument to enlisted white men because [potential donors] believed they would be helping drug-abusing psychopaths with no desire to work or contribute to society.
So what does Jug do? Well, he's a smart cookie... right up there with the best of the neocons. He solves his own problem by "finding" that 75 percent of those killed were volunteers, not draftees.
I'm glad I was able to see that connection, because I wasn't sure why someone would feel the need to try to prove that more rich, old, white volunteers were killed than po' uppity nigroe draftees.