Mass Murderer as "Hero". The New York Post today published a disgusting tribute to an "American Hero", citing this wonderful accomplishment:

According to his [Silver Star] citation, Smith's actions killed 20 to 50 Iraqis, allowing the American wounded to be evacuated, saving an aid station and headquarters, as well as possibly 100 American lives.

I'm so proud, as proud as the German people doubtless were of their brave soldiers who saved them from Polish aggression in September 1939 and the Japanese were proud of their brave heros who saved them from Chinese aggression, first in Manchuria in 1931 and then in China more broadly by 1937.
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The comparison is exact. Hitler did in fact claim that Poland attacked Germany and intended to crush his "Reich" by military force. The Japanese asserted a right of "self-defense" against Chinese attacks and "provocations" on China's own territory as justification for invading first Manchuria and then the rest of China. George Bush has asserted that Iraq was planning attacks upon the United States, in concert with al-Qaeda, which were an 'imminent danger' to the United States. Bush's lies belong in exactly the same category as Hitler's and Tojo's, and the 'right of self-defense' of Americans INVADING a country over 6,000 miles from the nearest shore of the United States is preposterous. Thus, when an American invader kills 20 to 50 Iraqis in their own country to defend other invaders in their commission of an illegal and immoral aggression, he is committing mass murder.
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He is not a hero. He is a war criminal. His family, his Nation, should be profoundly ashamed of him and all those other "heros" we are endlessly told to honor. I will not honor them, ever. When criminals get killed in the commission of their crimes, they get what they deserve. That they do not understand themselves to be criminals does not for an instant absolve them of responsibility nor of guilt in the crime of aggression. (Responsive to "American Hero: Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, US Army", New York Post, July 20, 2004)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 6:30 PM