…but they still support the troops

I caught a quick flash on the news last night about protesters at Denver’s Veterans’ Day events, but it took me until this morning to check the news, because after my own activities yesterday, I just didn’t have the energy to spend on those goofballs. But here’s the story from Denver’s Channel 7 news;

Hundreds of people lined the streets in downtown Denver Saturday morning to watch the city’s annual Veterans Day Parade but it was not without some conflict.

One Gulf War veteran, who only goes by the name “Cougar,” lost both of his legs in combat. As he was being pushed down the parade route, he broke into tears.

“It’s nice … We never got this treatment. Not until now. We deserve it,” he said.

Supporters waved flags to the beat of the drums, and cheered on the veterans as they marched by.

At the very end of the parade, though, several anti-war veterans groups were met with mixed emotions.

They carried signs protesting the Iraq War and President George W. Bush.

“We support the troops. We’ve been the troops. We believe the best way we can support them is to get them out of there,” said Frank Bessinger, a Vietnam veteran who organized the demonstration.

Um, Frank, this is about all veterans who’ve served in all wars. I visited the Tomb of the Confederate Unknown Soldiers – a mass grave of more than three hundred soldiers aside Robert E. Lee’s former mansion on Arlington – and paid my respects to people who’d died 90 years before I was born. You and your goofy group of misfits were making it political.

Denver’s Channel 8 reports they were banned this year for their behavior last year;

Organizers of the event say Veterans for Peace was not invited because the group staged what they considered an inappropriate protest at last year’s parade.

Andrew Grieb of the United Veterans Council of Denver says the parade is not a platform for protesting, but rather for honoring veterans of all services.

But Vietnam vet Frank Bessinger says the exclusion of the group violates freedom of expression.

Um, Frank, it wasn’t a government function, so you have no freedom of expression to disrupt it – the Bill of Rights protects us from the government not from each other.

I don’t like the “Veterans for Peace” moniker, either – it implies that I’m a “veteran for war” – and that’s certainly not the case. I’m for peace everywhere, but I’m enough of a realist to recognize that there are times thugs need to be dealt a forcible blow so they understand that peace is more advantageous to them than war. Even that knucklehead Clinton understood that up to a point.

But the Veterans for Peace were busy yesterday, they also made a splash in Boston. The complete and unvarnished coverage from Boston local Bloodthirsty Liberal and the blotter report from the Boston PD News blog.

Of course in Maine, they arrested veterans for busting up smelly, ignorant hippies’ anti-war propaganda (Ed. Sorry, I just noticed the date was two years ago);

“I’m saddened that it has come to this, but I have a responsibility to maintain public safety,” said Police Chief John Morris, a Vietnam veteran. “Veterans don’t behave like that. These people don’t have a right to destroy other people’s property. Legitimate veterans’ organizations don’t commit civil disobedience. Veterans died to allow freedom to exist — whether we like the message or not. ”

On Oct. 30, the peace group, Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice, placed the white flags at the park, accompanied by signs protesting the Iraq war.

On Wednesday, with Veterans Day looming, some veterans called the display a “desecration” and a “disgrace,” threatened to forcibly remove the flags, and challenged the police permit that authorized the display.

On Thursday evening, about eight people — Bridges for Peace members and their sympathizers, among them some veterans — gathered at one side of the park, not far from where about 10 protesters were preparing to yank the flags.

Veterans’ Day is as much for the living as it is for the dead – we take down Christmas displays, we dismantle all kinds of things that supposedly “offend” certain protected species of Americans – why can’t we do that for the patriots in this country instead of tossing them in jail? I’m sure the left has no problem with what happened in Kansas, though (link to TIME);

Almost as soon as Ann and Don Bender marked the 4th of July by planting a field of more than 3,500 flags — one for each of the American troops killed in Iraq— the elements began to take a toll. The baking sun and sudden storms of a Great Plains summer left the little flagsticks warped and broken and the fabric bleached and torn.

But that was nothing compared to the damage done in the dark hours of Sunday morning by vandals who kicked down thousands of the flags and left behind a cardboard sign with a single word splattered in red spray paint: “MURDERERS.”

“You’ll have to excuse me, sir, for crying,” said a big bear of a man named Andy Enders as he stood by the remains of what had been “the most beautiful memorial ever created by private citizens, in my opinion.”

Leftist bloggers think Veterans Day means remembering the mewling masses of protesters. Cindy Sheehan thinks Veterans’ Day is an opportunity to explain Jesus’ politics. But then what should we expect from a bunch of emotion-driven, irrational, sexually-frustrated self-serving children who’ve never known a moment’s discomfort, or understand the real meaning of sacrifice. Maybe they should take the time to read this short but elegant blog entry from Debbie Mumford on the subject.

Veterans’ Day is ABOUT the troops – it’s not about the government. If you can’t take one day off from your irrational emotional outbursts and support the troops on Veterans’ Day, you can’t claim to support them rest of the year, either.

Category: Antiwar crowd, Society