> I'm reading the late Col. David Hackworth's "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts".
> It's a riveting account of how, in Viet Nam, he turned an infantry
> battalion of poorly led draftees, with one of the Army's worst casualty
> rates, into an efficient disciplined unit.
>
> He had already decided that the war was total bullshit and saw it as his
> job to get as many guys back safely as he could.
>
> Any way...Hack also tells about how medals, decorations, and citations
> were handed out by the bucketful, cheapening their original meaning and
> value.
>
> And here's what he says about John McCain eight years ago:
> "John McCain is being hailed by the press as a "genuine war hero." But is
> he a war hero in the conventional sense like Audie Murphy and John Glenn?
>
> Or is his "war hero" status the creation of a very slick publicity
> campaign that plays on flag, duty, honor and country? ...