AOL: “This Memorial Day, take some time to recognize and remember our fallen heroes, and the brave men and women who keep our country safe every day.”
NEWSLANC: Most endangered their lives because they felt they were fighting in a just cause. However, all too often our nation’s youths have been sacrificed for questionable wars.
Let us not just honor the fallen on Memorial Day, but let us also hold responsible those who recklessly and foolishly and yes, even selfishly, sent them into ‘harm’s way’. Let us not produce more victims due to the military-industrial complex and popular ignorance and emotion.
Getting killed doesn’t necessarily make a soldier a hero, a word which meaning has been expropriated. Tragically, in unjust wars, it makes all of them victims… along with those they kill. Do we call them “heroes” becauses it helps mask our shame for having so carelessly sent so many to their deaths?
Robert Byrd, long time senator from West Virginia, at one point in a spotty career certainly demonstratred a moment of heroism. Please read on:
WIKIPEDIA: Byrd led a filibuster against the resolution granting President George W. Bush broad power to wage a “preemptive” war against Iraq, but he could not get even a majority of his own party to vote against cloture.[64]
Byrd was one of the Senate’s most outspoken critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Byrd anticipated the difficulty of fighting an insurgency in Iraq, stating on March 13, 2003,
“If the United States leads the charge to war in the Persian Gulf, we may get lucky and achieve a rapid victory. But then we will face a second war: a war to win the peace in Iraq. This war will last many years and will surely cost hundreds of billions of dollars. In light of this enormous task, it would be a great mistake to expect that this will be a replay of the 1991 war. The stakes are much higher in this conflict.”[65]
On March 19, 2003, when Bush ordered the invasion after receiving congressional approval, Byrd said,
“Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination.”[66]
Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech declaring the “end of major combat operations” in Iraq, which Bush made on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor,I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech.[67]
On October 17, 2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush’s policies. Referencing the Hans Christian Andersen children’s tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, Byrd said of the president: “the emperor has no clothes.” Byrd further lamented the “sheep-like” behavior of the “cowed Members of this Senate” and called on them to oppose the continuation of a “war based on falsehoods.”
Byrd accused the Bush administration of stifling dissent:
“The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms. Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world’s greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill—$87 billion—has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion—$87 for every minute since Jesus Christ was born—$87 billion without a single outside witness called to challenge the administration’s line.”
Of the more than 18,000 votes he cast as a senator, Byrd said he was proudest of his vote against the Iraq war resolution.[68] Byrd also voted to tie a timetable for troop withdrawal to war funding.
