SLANDER! Are you posting that Anne Coulter trash with a straight face? If so, shame on you big-time. Coulter has scurrilously slandered Max Cleland to the point of libel. It's the same thing they did to McCain and are trying to do to Kerry. It stinks to high hell.
Speech on the Floor of the Senate Regarding Senator Max Cleland
Thursday, February 12, 2004
U.S. SENATOR JACK REED: I rise to respond to a scurrilous attack against the patriotism of a friend and former colleague, Max Cleland. In a townhall.com column by Ann Coulter, which is described as a conservative news and information Web site, scurrilous, unprincipled attacks have been leveled against a patriot, a warrior, and a friend. I want to put my response in context.
I had the privilege of serving in the U.S. Army for 12 years on active duty. I did some challenging things there: qualified as an Army Ranger, paratrooper, commanded a company in the 82nd Airborne Division of paratroopers. But I am not a combat veteran. I did not serve in a combat zone. Max Cleland, and many, many others, did. There is a difference between those who wear the uniform of the United States and those who served in a combat situation, particularly a situation such as Vietnam.
The difference is that in that situation, more than any others, you live constantly with a sense of your own mortality. At any moment, through enemy fire or mishap, you could die or be seriously injured. At any moment, you could see people, your fellow soldiers, die from injuries. And for officers such as Max Cleland there is a special burden that goes along with leadership--not just officers but also noncommissioned officers. You have to make tough decisions that some day could result in the death or injury of another. That is a very special type of service that is inherent in being in a combat zone.
Max Cleland served with distinction. The article that Miss Coulter wrote mocks his service, mocks his sacrifice, and, in doing so, mocks the service and sacrifice of thousands and thousands of Americans in the past and today across the globe.
For example, this is how she describes Max in some respects. In her words:
"Moreover, if we're going to start delving into exactly who did what back then, maybe Max Cleland should stop allowing Democrats to portray him as a war hero who lost his limbs taking enemy fire on the battlefields of Vietnam."
Let's get one thing straight right now: Max Cleland is an American hero.
Let me read from the citation he received for the Silver Star, obtained from Senator Miller's Web site.
Captain Cleland distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April, 1968 ..... during enemy attack near Khe Sanh.
When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Captain Cleland, disregarding his own safety, exposed himself to the rocket barrage as he left his covered position to administer first aid to his wounded comrades. He then assisted in moving the injured personnel to covered positions.
Continuing to expose himself, Captain Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment, which had been damaged by enemy fire.
His gallant action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
Max Cleland is a hero. No one has to portray him as one; he is one.
With respect to how he lost his limbs, this goes on to say:
"Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix. In fact, Cleland could have dropped a grenade on his foot as a National Guardsman--or what Cleland sneeringly calls ``weekend warriors.'' Luckily for Cleland's political career and current pomposity about Bush, he happened to do it while in Vietnam."
Yeah, Max was really lucky to be in Vietnam--really lucky.
This is what happened. In Max's book:
"My tour of duty in Vietnam was now almost over. In another month I'd be going home. I smiled, thinking of the good times waiting stateside.
'Oh, Captain Cleland.'
I looked around. It was Major Cralle who had come up to our position. 'The battalion needs a better radio hookup with the vision supply area,' he said. 'I'd like you to send a radio relay team back there to improve communications.'
That meant setting up a radio relay station on a hill back at the division forward assembly area 15 miles to the east. Instead of sending a team alone, I decided to go with them to ensure they got set up properly.
It is what is called leadership, sacrifice, being willing to do yourself what you ask subordinates to do."
That is not routine anytime. This was a combat mission in a combat area.
"With two men, I pulled together some antennas and a generator and some radios and loaded them on a chopper. The three of us climbed in and the helicopter lifted off. Within minutes, we had settled down by the radio relay station. The men and equipment were unloaded, and I climbed back into the chopper intending to go down to battalion rear headquarters.
Then two ideas crossed my mind. First, it would be better to work personally with my team in setting up the radio relay. Second, I had a lot of friends at this relay station and now was a good time to have a cold beer with them."
First: I want my men to do the job. I am going to be there with them. By the way, I have comrades that I have served with and, you know, if I have a chance to be with them, and, oh, by the way--in his characteristic honesty--have a beer with them, I was going to do that.
"I called to the pilot that I was getting out. He nodded and held the ship steady. I jumped to the ground, ran in a crouch until I got clear of the spinning helicopter blades, turned around and watched the chopper lift.
Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off.
It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before. Shifting the M-16----"
Let me stop. I assume if he is carrying grenades and an M-16 this was not a recreational activity.
"Shifting the M-16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, I bent down to pick up the grenade.
A blinding explosion threw me backwards.
The blast jammed my eyeballs back into my skull, temporarily blinding me, pinning my cheeks and jaw muscles to the bones of my face. My ears rang with a deafening reverberation as if I were standing in an echo chamber.
Memory of the firecracker exploding in my hand as a child flashed before me.
When my eyes cleared I looked at my right hand. It was gone."
I could go on, but I think that speaks volumes. Max thought, frankly, that it was his grenade. But regardless of whose grenade it was, I was always taught, as a leader, that if there was a grenade, a live grenade, somebody has to take care of it.
Now, maybe Miss Coulter would have simply said: Sergeant, go get that grenade--or maybe just turned around and run further away, leaving a live grenade, with a pin or without a pin, in the middle of a landing zone.
Max did what a good soldier does. We used to say at West Point: "A good soldier marches to the sound of guns." And that is what he did when he picked up the grenade. He was horribly wounded. Everything was broken except his spirit.
But the fear that it was his grenade, that it was a dumb accident, was allayed years later.
This is an article in Esquire magazine:
"He lives with the fact that he asked for it. He was in college during Vietnam and left to join the Army because he'd always gone toward the action."
March to the sound of the guns.
"He became the aide to a general stateside and fought to get shipped to 'Nam.
He fought to go to Vietnam.
Once in country, he was an army captain and saw little combat and fought to be sent into Khe Sanh.
Closer to the action--
And when Khe Sanh was over and they were mopping up, he almost bought the farm.
For thirty-one years, he figured it was his fault. Before he jumped out of the chopper, he'd checked his grenades to make sure the pins that activated them were bent and could not accidentally fall out. Straight pins can get you killed. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground and saw a grenade beneath him. And then for thirty-one years he heard that explosion and thought, 'I've blown myself up with my own grenade.' He got decorations but would have none of them, because to Max Cleland they sure . . . didn't cover a man who blows himself up. Then, this spring-"
This was August 1999--
He was on a television show and told his story about that day at Khe Sanh, and later a guy called up and said, Hey, I was there, it wasn't your grenade, I saw it. And Cleland checked the caller out, and it seems the guy really was there. And this year--
In 1999--
Max celebrated Being Alive Day with him down in Georgia.
This is not an accurate portrayal of the service and sacrifice of Max Cleland. It is unprincipled and scurrilous. It defames him, and it defames people who wear the uniform of the United States.
She is not through yet:
"Cleland wore the uniform, he was in Vietnam, and he has shown courage by going on to lead a productive life. But he didn't 'give his limbs for his country,' or leave them 'on the battlefield.' There was no bravery involved in dropping a grenade on himself with no enemy troops in sight. That could have happened in the Texas National Guard---- "
There is plenty of bravery there, the bravery of leading men in difficult circumstances, in the sight of the enemy or out of the sight of the enemy. It was the bravery of understanding instinctively that you could not leave a live grenade rolling around in a landing zone. It was the bravery of being willing to be with his men even though he could have easily dropped them off, waved from the helicopter, and flown off to a happy life, 1 month before his return to the United States.
It disturbs me about Max, but Max is quite a man. But this also disturbs me about--what does it say about our soldiers today in Iraq, about the soldiers I visited, National Guardsmen and regular soldiers, at Walter Reed, who were injured, critically injured, in vehicle accidents and other mishaps that are part of a combat operation?
They did not sacrifice their limbs and their spines for our country? Is that what she is saying? Is that what we are going to say when we pat them on the back and say thanks for your service?
There are no excuses for this kind of unprincipled attack on an individual, unsubstantiated by the record, an attack, as I say again and again, not only denigrates Max Cleland, it denigrates everyone who wore the uniform of the United States and wears it today. It denigrates particularly those individuals--and I must again emphatically say, I did not serve in combat--but those individuals who today serve in a combat area, who wake up every morning thinking it may be their last moment, who wake up every morning thinking that they may have to order people to do things that will cost them their lives.
It is an experience that I have not known, very few people in this Chamber have known. It is the mark of true heroism and courage, and day in and day out men like Max Cleland do it. And to suggest that he is not a hero, to suggest that his sacrifice was some type of stunt gone bad, some type of foolishness is beneath contempt. |
