Saturday, December 17, 2005
[1903 - First successful powered airplane flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina by Orville and Wilbur Wright]
[1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz named Commander in Chief,
US Pacific Fleet to relieve Admiral Husband Kimmel]
Heroes All
In the Old Navy it only took ten days to figure out that the guy who permitted December 7, 1941, to live in infamy should be canned and replaced by a competent officer. Nowadays we reward the failed leader who permitted September 11, 2001, to live in infamy by giving him an additional four years in office so that he can award medals to his pals. A year ago, President Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor this nation can bestow) to three individuals. In one ceremony he made heroes of the former intelligence chief whose junk information about WMD led to the disastrous war in Iraq, the former general who was rolled by the pentagon into accepting an inadequate force to secure that country after it was captured, and the ambassador who bungled the occupation and allowed it to degenerate into chaos and insurgency.