OPINION:
French President Francois Hollande immediately recognized the heroic actions taken by three quick-thinking young Americans, a French citizen and a British grandfather in preventing a great threat to human life on Aug. 21 (“Americans, Briton who thwarted train attack get France’s top honor,” Web, Aug. 25). Without hesitation, Mr. Hollande awarded all four men France’s highest honor, the Legion d’honneur, in a formal ceremony at the Elysee Palace. This is great example of how a national leader behaves in the face of national adversity.
Meanwhile, back in the good ol’ USA, our commander in chief set about doing his low-level best to appear magnanimous by bestowing on the two American servicemen the Airman’s Medal and the Soldier’s Medal. Americans need to know that while these are honorable decorations for heroism, they are always awarded for heroic acts in “non-combat” situations and totally wrong for this particular action.
This is nothing more than a White House sleight of hand. President Obama is trying to dodge the asymmetric warfare issue of American fighters engaging in combat with a heavily armed Islamic terrorist. He is downplaying these men’s heroic actions by characterizing it as crime-fighting. These brave young men charged unarmed at a terrorist who had already opened fire with a fully automatic Kalashnikov assault rifle aboard a crowded bullet train full of unarmed civilians. If that isn’t close combat, what is?
Presenting these non-combat medals makes Mr. Obama appear to be doing the right thing, but he is just taking advantage of America’s ignorance of its own military awards. This not only allows him to slyly dodge the issue of our being in an asymmetric war, it also allows him to avoid awarding Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone a Purple Heart for the severe wounds he suffered in action while subduing and securing the hostile foe. Bronze Stars should be the order of the day, but that would demand the inclusion of a Purple Heart for Airman 1st Class Stone, which would shine the spotlight on how poorly our president has treated all of our killed and wounded unarmed warriors.
K.J. DOLNEY
Columbia, S.C.
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