Saturday, February 11, 2012

Politicians Cheapen Everything


The Obama Regime does things and sometimes you just look at them and wonder why.  Sometimes you simply ask what are they thinking? 
They now are doing something that makes most people stop for a minute and ask why. What are they doing?
They have announced that a new Navy ship is going to be named the USS Gabrielle Giffords.
 Why is a ship being named after Gabrielle Giffords and not one being named after Marc Lee?
 We all know the story of Gabrielle Giffords -- the member of congress from Arizona who was shot by a lunatic.  Her injuries were horrific and she has done a commendable job fighting back and trying to recover from the damage done to her by her insane assailant.
 But why name a ship after her?

She has no ties to the Navy, other than her husband who was a naval officer and astronaut.   She never served in the Navy, much less in combat.
Why is she being honored by having a United States Navy warship named after her?
Some have called Giffords’ fight to recover courageous. But  courageous is a term that is over used in America.   Courageous is not doing something for yourself when you really have no other choice.   Courage is putting yourself at risk for others.
Marc Lee enlisted in the United States Navy in 2001.  He wanted to be a Navy Seal.  By 2004, he had realized that dream.  By 2006, he was in Iraq. 
On August 2, 2006, his unit was in a vicious firefight with Islamic insurgents in Ramadi Iraq.   Another member of Lee’s unit was critically wounded.  Lee exposed himself to enemy fire twice, drawing it away from the wounded man and the team that was trying to evacuate him.  Later that day Lee and his men volunteered to go back out to engage the same Islamic fighters they had fought earlier.
Marc Lee took the lead to help protect his men and he died doing so. He gave his life for his country and his fellow servicemen.
For his gallantry that day, he was award the Silver Star.
People like Gabrielle Giffords.  People are horrified by what happened to her and want the best for her.  Everyone wants her to have a complete and total recovery.
But in the end, she was the victim of a crime.  That is terrible but not something that calls for the honor of having a Navy ship named after her.
Traditionally, the Navy names ships after people who were either heroes or at least rendered exemplary service to the nation.
The Navy has named ships after George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  It is hard to argue those.  The navy has named ships after Chester Nimitz, the admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet during World War 2 and Dwight Eisenhower,  the supreme commander of allied forces in Europe during World War 2 who later became President.  Again, it is hard to argue those.
The Navy has named warships after John F. Kennedy, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.  All three men served in the Navy.  Ford served in an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.  Kennedy’s famous PT 109 was sunk and he displayed heroism in saving his crew.  Bush’s aircraft was shot down over a Japanese held island in World War 2.  Again, all of them have done something to merit having a ship named after them.
Admiral Hymen Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy, once was tasked why the Navy had begun naming submarines after politicians instead of continuing its tradition of naming them after fish.  He responded saying “Politicians have more votes than fish.” 
If the Obama Regime were growing the Navy and this was just a stunt to get more money for the doing so, perhaps it could just be accepted and everyone would move on.
But that is not the case.
The Obama Regime is slashing military spending.
So the question remains.  Why is the Navy naming a new warship after an otherwise unknown  member of Arizona's congressional delegation and not after the first Navy Seal killed in Iraq?

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