September: A Month of Vandalism and Abuse

In case you missed it apparently September was Leftist Vandalism Month.

On September 7th while Americans were focused on the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 someone or some group attacked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

An unidentified oily substance was splattered on the lower panels of the beloved memorial that bears the names of over 58000 soldiers who died in the Vietnam War.

The substance splashed along a 60-foot section of the wall defacing lower sections of the panels and some of the names of our soldiers displayed there. Sadly the substance soaked into the granite memorial which makes it extremely difficult and in some areas impossible to remove.

If you have been to the Vietnam Memorial you know the emotions that the memorial evokes. I felt these emotions when I visited there as does everyone who visits. I can only imagine what it feels like to be the parent spouse child sibling or friend who goes there to see and touch the name of a loved one engraved in that granite wall. But I cannot imagine the anger that many of them will feel when they see those same names now defaced by such a cowardly act.

Though no suspects have been identified it seems obvious that the attack was not a random act of vandalism. This desecration of the memorial occurred just days before an anti-war rally in Washington to protest General David Petraeus’ report to Congress on the progress being made in Iraq. That the cowardly vandals chose the Vietnam Memorial speaks volumes about the message that they wanted to send.

The attack against the Vietnam Memorial was not the only scandalous act of vandalism that took place. Another one took place a few days later in the pages of The New York Times. 

On September 10th The New York Times ran a full-page ad that featured a picture of Petraeus with the caption “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” The rest of the ad was a full-fledged defacement not only of Petraeus’ character and integrity but of all our military commanders who disagree with the hard-core leftists’ view on America’s war against terrorists.

It appears that The New York Times was fully complicit in the smear campaign sponsored by the radical left wing group MoveOn.org. Typically a full-page ad would cost $142083; however MoveOn.org took advantage of The New York Times little-known one-day-sale for full-page anti-war ads that slander the reputations and character of highly-decorated and widely-respected generals about to testify before Congress. MoveOn.org paid only $64575 for the ad.

In an interesting side note to all of this the American Conservative Union filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission citing that the discount The New York Times gave MoveOn.org is illegal under federal law.

Initially none of the Democrat leadership denounced the despicable attack on the commander of our forces in Iraq. Prior to the ad Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had called Petraeus’ credibility into question and implied that he could not be trusted to give a truthful account of the situation in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton the soon-to-be Democrat nominee for president told Petraeus to his face that his report on the success of the surge strategy “requires a willing suspension of disbelief.”

That is leftist political speak for Hillary and Harry calling Petraeus a dirty rotten liar.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) reacted swiftly to the attack on Petraeus by introducing a resolution condemning the malicious ad. Unfortunately the vote was not unanimous. The resolution was approved by a vote of 72-25 with 22 other Democrats and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joining Hillary and Harry in voting against the resolution.

Sen. Barak Obama (D-IL) who joined Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) in not voting issued a statement saying “By not casting a vote I registered my protest against these empty politics.” In other words Obama was not about to anger the leftist anti-war base that can afford full-page ads in The New York Times.

There was one more act of vandalism in September that took place on the 24th when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee chaired by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV). Before the hearing began anti-war protesters were allowed into the hearing room.  According to The Washington Post Sen. Byrd “… invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses General Pace and Secretary Gates.”

The Post reported that members of the radical “… anti-war group Code Pink continued to shout at the witnesses and wave signs for the better part of an hour.” The hearing was adjourned “… as the hecklers shouted down the nation’s top military officer.”

September was a month of vandalism and abuse aimed at the U.S. military and its efforts to fight the war against terrorists. Unfortunately these repulsive acts are not likely to be confined only to the month of September. Sad does not begin to describe what is happening in our country.