by Derrick Z. Jackson

Boston Globe

12/22/04

In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to his Vietnam War commander, General William Westmoreland. ... Thirty-eight years later, President Bush awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to the commander of his forces in Iraq, General Tommy Franks. ... In 1968, Johnson awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to his outgoing secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. Johnson called McNamara 'an intensely loyal, brilliant, and good man.' Thirty-six years later, Bush in his end-of-the-year press conference called his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld 'a good, decent man.' ... Johnson handed out the medals over a war in which 58,000 American soldiers died for a losing cause. Bush is handing out medals and humanizing his defense secretary for an invasion in which 1,300 US soldiers and untold thousands of Iraqi civilians have died under false pretenses...

http://tinyurl.com/4nlhx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp