Stolen because I don’t really have any deep thoughts of my own — Steven D
Generals are not the War Heroes which some sycophantic fools like to portray them as on the Nightly News. Generals are the people who get to tell real war heroes where they must go to die. Or have their brains pulped, limbs detached, et cetera. And then, after they retire, Generals get to write their memoirs blaming everyone else for what went wrong on their watch, and how honorable they were because they simply followed the bad orders of their civilian superiors, even if that required them to violate the Geneva conventions regarding torture.
Hey, I stole it from Atrios, who stole it from Saturday Night Live.
This reminds me of certain aspects of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Because of its nature, the medal is frequently awarded posthumously.
Sadly, that was the case for the most recent recipient of the Medal who died in Iraq.
It seems that recipients of medals of valor often have the same consideration expressed by Medal recipient Hershel “Woody” Williams:
The only heroes in war are the ones who refuse. The rest are, at best, pawns.