Debate on what is a "hero" takes on political partisanship in America

by Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA)

Everyone who joins the military and fights in Iraq and kills Arabs is a hero, according to Michele Malkin, the loose-with-the-facts rightwing damagogue who bullies and berates anyone who stands up for the good old American principles of civil rights. Malkin this week said that to her, every American who enlists int he military to fight in Iraq is a hero. Of course, she says that because it plays to her political agenda, not that she really believes American Marines in Iraq are heroes — although maybe she belives those growing number who have charged with murder and have escaped punishment are “heroes.”

Malkin doesn’t need a reason to offer her venomous diatribes. A column in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times that objectively tackled the devaluation of the term “hero” was enough to launch Malkin on her diatribe on the Bill O’Reilly Show. There are a lot of bigots and racists on FOX Cable News (not the local FOX news stations, by the way), but Bill O’Reilly happens to be one of the more balanced and objective commentators. He’s rightwing, but he is very fair in his discussions and debates. Malkin, on the otherhand, is an outright racist and a bigot.

The column in the LA Times is by Rosa Brooks and argues peesuasively that just because someone enlists in the military, they are not necessarily heroes, as they are being made out by President Bush and rightwing demagogues like Malkin. She cites the case of Pat Tillman, the pro-football player who left his career to fight in the War on terrorism only to be killed by fellow Marines in a “friendly fire incident” that was covered up by the Marine Brass — as they always seem to do. They lie and distort the facts to protect their image and their mission, even when that mission is misguided.

Brooks argues correctly that Tillman was not really a hero. Malkin insists he was. Malkin explained that because Tillman left his high profile celebrity football career to join the military, that makes him a hero in her book.

Well, one can admire Tillman for leaving his footbacl career to fight in a war, but that doesn’t make him a hero. That he was killed in action and the military tried to make it look like he died while fighting the enemy, misled Americans into believing he was a hero, when in fact he was really a victim of the war, dying at the hands of his fellow soldiers and not the enemy. That doesn’t make him a hero. But, doing what he did made him a perfect American patriot who was willing to stand upf or his country.

Malkin lambastes Brooks, distorting her arguments in order to make her own case. And then goes on to unveil her real motives. Herosim, according to Malkin, is based on partisan politics, Tillman is a hero because he is being criticized as not being a hero by “left wing nuts” in the media. Then, Malkin, the Queen of RightWing Demagogues, turns around and viciously attacks Cindy Sheehan, who is a hero. The mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, Sheehan decided to stand up to the overwhelming public opinion which was misled by lies and distortions and fabrications by Bush and the Lying Liar of Liars himself Vice President Dick Cheney. That took courage to do that because she stood up at a time when standing up to the lies was not easy to do. Let’s face it, most Democrats in Congress were afraid to stand up and vote against the illegal war in Iraq. They knew that Bush was lying yet they feared the backlash from voters in 2003 who were driven to the edge of hysteria by Bush and Cheney and their WMD lies.

And malkiin exposes her partisan crap when she defends Tillman, who is not a hero but a brave patriot, and then attacks Sheehan, a mother who had the courage to stand up and defend what she believes, helping to ignote what is today a growing anti-War movement in the United States.

This past week, some 100 representatives of 300 American cities that voted to adopt resolutions denouncing the War in Iraq and demanding that the United State sbring our soldiers home, were shamed and insulted by President Bush. These elected representatives of some 150 million Americans (living in the 300 major municipalities that approved the resolutions including in Chicago, for example) were not given the respect they deserved when they went to the White House and tried to present their petitions and copies of the resolutions to President Bush. Bush refused to accept them.

Cowardly. Bush is certainly no hero.

But back to the Brooks point: Heorism is not when you fight an illegal war because it is popular. It is not when you stand up for the Republican fanaticism of the reasoned Democratic view (my bias here of course). Americans who enlist int he Military are doing what they are being asked to do. When they serve, they are doing what they are expected to do. A hero is someone who goes above and beyond what they are asked to do. Not every American soldier serving in Iraq or even in Afghanistan where the war IS justified (Iraq is not) is a hero. Not every Americans oldier who is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan is a hero. They are patriots who should be honored, and they are honored with service medals and with benefits and with promotions and with honorable discharges. But the real heroes are those individuals who go above and beyond what everyday soldiers are expected to do. A soldier who dies trying to save the lives of others, by diving on a grenade, for example — something that happened often in Vietnam, for example — would be a hero in death. But being killed in Iraq? Being killed in Afghanistan. Not really heroes, but honored patriots, maybe.

Heroism must be reserved to recognize those who go the extra mile, who put more than what is expected of them. Just doing you job does not make you a hero or a great person. But do more than what you are expected, and especially going the extra mile to trade your life to save the life of others, THAT, Michele, is a REAL hero. Being a hero is special, not some political honor bestowed on a soldier who died just so President Bush. Vice President Cheney and bigots like Michele Malkin can exploit those deaths and pretend that they are more American than those righteous people like Cindy Sheehan who have stood up to the evil in the White House policies that have sent more than 3,000 American soldiers to their unnecessary deaths.

It is easier to say that today than it was when Americans were consumed with vengeance and hatred against everything Arab or Muslim. But saying it when she did, after her son’s death, in my view makes Cindy Sheehan a hero. Pretending that people who support the illegal Iraq war are heroes is a insult to the concept of real heroism.

Now, if we wanted to talk about who is and isn’t a racist bigot, we can focus on Malkin. She epitomizes today’s American bigot, the queen of racists and haters.

– Ray Hanania writing from the Asian American Journalists Association Convention in Miami
www.hanania.com