This morning on Fox, General Petraeus starts his offensive here in America. The Republican party who told us John Kerry wasn't quite heroic enough - although he won a Bronze Star with V for Valor for a daring combat rescue and the even higher Silver Valor Star for heroism as a real, fighting soldier - will now tell us that Bronze Stars with V for Valor are "no big deal" and it's okay Petraeus wears one just to be like cool like the other guys.
And it doesn't hurt the snowjob, either, ya know?
Petraeus has never discharged his weapon against enemy forces, never rescued anyone physically in combat and faced what little flying metal he did face surrounded by soldiers and journalists. That trifle only because he failed to direct his troops properly. Republicans say Kerry didn't pick enough metal out of his arm. Petraeus never even got any on his flak jacket. But they both got the same medal somehow. Here's the short version:
The officer corps in Iraq have created a quiet scandal in their awarding of medals - inconsistently and far too often to themselves. General David Petraeus is the most egregious example. Entering combat in 2003 for the first time, as a 54-year-old Major General, he received a hero's combat medal. (Note young Marine Cpl. James Wright's saluting hand - other one's gone, too.). Petraeus biographies have him under fire in Najaf. No serious incident other than the 30 March mortar shell is described by either V Corps embed Komarow (now a senior editor at AP) nor Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer-prize embed with the 101st Airborne and Petraeus's constant companion. Disturbingly, the Army describes the incident quite differently. Even if conceivably true, this patently silly propaganda story would not rise to the risking of blood and bone associated with the Bronze Star for Valor. Scandal and propaganda having denied credibility, reason and decency insist that the medal Petraeus wore before the Congress was a cynical, fraudulent misrepresentation of combat valor for the sake of ambition and political convenience.