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Rescind Medals of Honor from soldiers at Wounded Knee
beneteau
Member Posts: 8,553 ✭✭✭
Lawmakers seek to rescind Medals of Honor from soldiers at Wounded Knee massacre
Three House members are calling for Congress to posthumously rescind Medals of Honor awarded to 20 U.S. soldiers who participated in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, where an estimated 250 Native Americans -- mostly women and children -- were killed.
Rep. Paul Cook, R-Calif., and Democrats Denny Heck of Washington and Deb Haaland of New Mexico introduced the Remove the Stain bill Tuesday to strip the soldiers of America's highest military award.
?It bothers me as a professional military person and as a historian ? with not only the massacre and the slaughter and with everything that happened to a group of people, but basically to perpetuate a lie that is associated with the highest award we have for valor,? said Cook, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, according to the Washington Times.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-seek-to-rescind-medals-of-honor-from-soldiers-at-wounded-knee-massacre
Three House members are calling for Congress to posthumously rescind Medals of Honor awarded to 20 U.S. soldiers who participated in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre, where an estimated 250 Native Americans -- mostly women and children -- were killed.
Rep. Paul Cook, R-Calif., and Democrats Denny Heck of Washington and Deb Haaland of New Mexico introduced the Remove the Stain bill Tuesday to strip the soldiers of America's highest military award.
?It bothers me as a professional military person and as a historian ? with not only the massacre and the slaughter and with everything that happened to a group of people, but basically to perpetuate a lie that is associated with the highest award we have for valor,? said Cook, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, according to the Washington Times.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-seek-to-rescind-medals-of-honor-from-soldiers-at-wounded-knee-massacre
Comments
What was done at the time may have seemed correct with the views of the people.
I agree with this statement.
The fact there were "20 Medals of Honor," awarded with this debacle is ridiculous.
Save it for Soldiers who have actually "Earned it."
Take it as you will Sir.
It is the right thing to do, in my humble opinion.
You are okay with "20 Medals of Honor," being awarded for this travesty? Personally, I am not.
Standing up to the plate. You?
No.
A "Million dollars each," is not a move in the right/correct direction.
Stripping those undeserving of a "Medal of Honor," is a move - in the right direction.
(Again) Your view may differ.
This debacle, was not a "Medal of Honor," worthy event. Never was, never will be.
Sorry Sir, I personally believe you are wrong/incorrect.
This never was a "Medal of Honor," worthy event. The fact there were 20, handed out, was ludicrous.
Save them for the Soldiers, who actually earned them.
(Again) My Personal Opinion.
http://www.jmarkpowell.com/when-the-army-took-back-the-congressional-medal-of-honor-2/
As should have been the case.
Yes, that makes the slaughter of Women and Children okay, apparently.
Worthy of 20 "Medals of Honor."
Right?
(No. Not in the least.)
The majority of the 911 men that were awarded the MOH that was taken away didn't try to have it awarded to them in the first place and didn't do anything wrong. They figured, what the hell, if they think I deserve it then who am I to turn down such a big honor and so it was they accepted the metal as a lot of people would. Then years later when they were stripped of the metal it became a huge embarrassment to them for which they did not really deserve. The Army should have just let that dog lie. The politicians and the leaders in the Army were the ones that made the mistake not the soldiers themselves. That's just my opinion.
If you "Know," You did not earn it, why accept it? (I believe I can pretty much can answer that.)
(And it's medal, by the way.)
This Honor, should go to our very Best of the Best.
(Not) to the BS, that transpired there. (20 "Medal of Honor?") For what transpired there? I think not.
Sure, they didn?t earn them. But as noted above, let that sleeping dog lie. And I?m not saying I agree with what was done at Wounded Knee.
While not exactly the same, this, to me, is in the same realm as the reparations BS being spewed. Yes, bad siht happened. But no one alive today had any part in it. Move on and learn from it.
At the time, the American Indian was 'the enemy' and total elimination was thought by many as the best solution. Even Frank Baum who is noted for writing "The Wizard of Oz" stated "The only good Indian, is a dead Indian."
At this rate, with the 'rewriting of history' and proposals to pay reparations to negros 'cause over a century ago some were slaves, it won't be long and some loon will proclaim to rescind the Medals of Honor given the those who fought in WWI and in WWII because now we are friendly with the Germans and the Japanese.
We have enough gun laws, what we need is IDIOT control.
Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
I thought getting old would take longer. :shock:
Sorry, not on the same track, even remotely.
We have enough gun laws, what we need is IDIOT control.
Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
I thought getting old would take longer. :shock:
So you are of the belief none of the Medal of Honor awards were given to our soldiers who shot and killed unarmed individuals.
We have enough gun laws, what we need is IDIOT control.
Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
I thought getting old would take longer. :shock:
So, .................Do you (honestly) believe 20 Medal of Honor recipients were warranted in this action?
It was a different time with different beliefs ..... (once people believed the world was flat and slavery was 1000% legal) ... and besides, I was not there nor involved in the decision making process to approve the awards. Nor was anyone else alive today.
In hindsight, many things look different - so it's a woulda, shoulda, coulda thing!
History should not be messed with .... same with tearing down statues of the Confederate soldiers.
My opinion.
We have enough gun laws, what we need is IDIOT control.
Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
I thought getting old would take longer. :shock:
http://www.dickshovel.com/mccain.html
http://www.dickshovel.com/mccainrsp.html
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From: Senator John McCain - Chairman Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Concerning: Rescindment of Medals of (dis)Honor
Date: June 24, 1996
Dear Mr. Dill,
Thank you for your recent letters, together with signatures and comments from other citizens via the Internet, proposing that Congress rescind seventeen Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. Army personnel for actions at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890, and at Drexel Mission on the following day.
I appreciate why you view with dismay the award of the nation's highest decoration for valor to soldiers of the United States Army for their individual efforts in an action that resulted in the death or wounding of as many as 370 Indian men, women and children. I also appreciate the concern that these awards can be viewed as diminishing the value of Medals of Honor awarded for conduct in other conflicts.
The policies and decisions of the United States Government that led to the Army's being at Wounded Knee in 1890 doubtless can be characterized as unjust, unwise, or worse. Nevertheless, a retrospective judgement that the Government's policies and actions were dishonorable does not warrant rescinding the medals awarded to individual soldiers for bravery in a brief, fierce fight in which 25 soldiers were killed and 45 others wounded. Neither today's standards for awarding the medal nor policies of the United States with regard to Indian tribes are what they were in 1890.
The criteria by which the Medal of Honor is awarded have changed greatly since the original, ambiguous, nineteenth century authorization for the medal that gave commanders a wide latitude in choosing men to receive it. Soldiers could even nominate themselves for the award, and did. Between 1891 and 1897, over 500 medals were awarded for actions in the Civil War, more than three decades earlier. These awards led to the formation of the Medal of Honor Legion, and organization of recipients concerned that wholesale bestowal of the award was weakening the medal's prestige.
In part due to the efforts of the Medal of Honor Legion, President Wilson in 1916 signed a law that clarified the procedures and standards of proof for awarding the Medal of Honor. To receive the medal, one must demonstrate distinguished gallantry or intrepity, at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty. The 1916 law also provided for a board of retired generals to review each of the 2,625 Army medals awarded for conduct during campaigns against Indian tribes between 1861 and 198, including Wounded Knee. As a result of this review, 911 medals were rescinded, all because the recipients were judged not to have distinguished themselves in combat and at the risk of their lives.
In 1990, in an unprecedented action the 101st Congress passed Senate COncurrent Resolution 153, which apologized to the Sioux people for the Wounded Knee massacre and expressed support for the establishment of a "suitable and appropriate memorial to those who were tragically slain at Wounded Knee." Since then, descendents of the Wounded Knee victims and survivors, the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribal governments, the State of South Dakota, Members of Congress and the U.S. Department of the Interior have considered a number of proposals, including a National Tribal Park, as an appropriate memorial.
While a consensus on a Wounded Knee memorial proposal remains elusive, efforts to achieve such a consensus are continuing. I support these efforts in the belief that establishing a well-conceived memorial to the victims of Wounded Knee is much preferable to attempting to strip long-dead soldiers of a medal which they might not merit under today's standards.
Sincerely,
John McCain - Chairman
This is what Dictators do. Rewrite / revise and destroy History. Guess many are getting ready to get on the Democratic Plantation. They must like the feel of the power.
and jeez don't they have something better to do?
disclaimer: I don't like what happened and I really don't see how they got Medals of Honor for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor
To have awarded the medals (for bravery) to soldiers serving their country, at a very different time and place (1890), then, people, not alive at that time, to consider rescinding the medals is the utmost in Despicable!
Second guessing and changing history on a snow-flakery whim is not allowed!
However, I'm certain...130 years from now...after the muslims have taken over the USA, they too, will rewrite the history books. :shock:
Or we ca go down a road that was written before any of us were born. And that road has no end.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Yea but the 20 from wounded knee met their criteria........................in 1917
Different times, different attitudes.
We also stole their land, killed their buffalo and starved them, then we disarmed and dehumanized them and put them on reservations hoping they would die.
The "Massacre" was done by the 7th Cavalry, they killed around 300 Sioux, they suffered about 80 casualties so it wasn't a massacre like Mia Lay. You have to remember the Sioux were members of an affiliate tribe that "Massacred" Custer and Little Bighorn, In fact the Chiefs were related. The Sioux had left the reservation, were armed and trying to link up with another tribe. They were also practicing a religion called the ghost dance. The Ghost Dance was a type of religion that would make the white man leave.
What I am leading up to is the soldiers, like soldiers everywhere were scared, mad and hated their enemy who had been dehumanized in their eyes and when a shot was fired it was on like donkey kong.
As far as "Taking Back" the CMH from those guys just because they were there and followed their orders against a potentially hostile force...............
I am indifferent about it. I have seen plenty of people get awards for doing jack chit and others who did heroic deeds get nothing.
Let sleeping dogs lie. Superman is the only guy who can right all wrongs and as far as I am concerned the US Congress has bigger fish to fry than this. That is one of the problems in this country right now, people keep digging up all the the bad stuff we did as a nation and not celebrating all the good things.
What we did to the Indians was bad and there is nothing we can do today to make it right.
with the likes of Obammy and that crazy AOC taking over the political scene it won't be long till they try to take away medals from WWII or maybe even try to remove the Arizona for leaking oil into the ocean. I wouldn't put anything past this bunch who are running the country today.....I would agree with you that I think today they give out to many medals for basically being there, one example was Jessica Lynch, she lived just a few miles from us, and while I think she did go through a very rough time, it was basically because she got lost from the convoy and got capture, I don't think she ever fired a round back, and yes she was then beaten and tortured but with the exception of living through the ordeal she wasn't any type of hero, or did anything heroic to save lives of the others involved yet she got medal for such.
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"Hindsight is always 20-20".
We can all look back at things we have done and with the knowledge of what transpired, would like to make different choices. Like has been said, we should remember our history (both good and bad) to learn from it, but look forward to the future.
nation of people just trying to live in "THEIR" world, lying to anyone that had ears and NEVER keeping one single promise to those he sought to displace.
Awarding our nations highest honor to a band of murderers is shameful and should be corrected. Come on folks, we are not those people ........ the ones that kill anything that doesn't look like us. I would think that after a hundred some odd years that we have grown intelligent enough and educated enough to see what a travesty awarding those medals for that act of abomination truly is.
We certainly can't bring back the dead but we could gain some "Honor" back for the Medal of Honor and show that we as a people don't glorify ourselves
for horrible acts of our past.
I'm sure that all of us here would do all we could to see a previously unacknowledged hero awarded the Medal of Honor no matter how many years have passed since his act of heroism ............. why then the hesitation to rescind the same medal from those who didn't honorably earn it.