US veterans to return war medals in protest

[white cloud]

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

Iraq war veteran Steven Acheson will engage in the rarest of protests this weekend: He will hand back his military service medals at the NATO summit in Chicago, an act one veteran calls "disgraceful."


Acheson, who served for five years in the Army, including more than a year in Iraq that he says left him with PTSD and nightmares, is taking this step to protest the "war on terror" and the force leading it, NATO. He will be joined by a few dozen veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who are concerned about the wars' fallout on veterans and civilians alike.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/16/11730683-us-veterans-to-return-war-medals-in-protest?lite

[qb]

1. I admire their courage and integrity.

[pinboy3niner]

2. I remember when Kerry threw his ribbons on the Capitol steps

I watched the news at the Army hospital in San Francisco, where I was being treated for my war wounds, and something just boiled up in me.

I'd been a true believer, volunteering for the draft, for Army Infantry, for OCS, for Vietnam, and for combat assignment.

But by that time, after VN combat and living for more than a year on the hospital floor that had all the facial casualties and all the amputees, and watching the never-ending flow of new casualties into our hospital and onto our floor, my views and my feelings had changed in ways I wasn't even consciously aware of.

When I saw the news about Kerry's protest, this true believer couldn't help exclaiming, "Yeah!" And in that moment I wished so much that I could have been with Kerry then, throwing my ribbons, too, at rhe Capitol...

[white cloud]

3. Thanks for your service pinboy

May we never have another VN

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Kerry threw something, maybe, unclear

It was a good moment, Kerry throwing away ... something. No sacrifice, just show-biz.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=123495&page=1

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/kerry_medals_flap/

Can you throw away a silver star and purple hearts, and later brag on them in a political campaign? It seems a little disingenuous.

[unhappycamper]

4. I was responsible for security in the main testimony room at the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings in MD

I saw John turner toss his medals:

Powerful stuff.....