Coulter, others peddle lies
Does “Students jeer Coulter during speech” (article, Dec. 9, Europe edition; “Coulter jeered during speech,” Mideast edition) mean that America is getting wise to the wicked witch? No. But it’s a start.
What people like Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh are peddling is hatred and lies. Before our dear friend Rush became a celebrity, he was well-known for his racist remarks, now conveniently ignored by the right and the American media. What these thugs preach has nothing to do with what one person said in the (Dec. 9) article: “a different view in a respectful environment.” If only it was. A “view” can only exist where there is mutual respect. The extreme right-wing conservative smear campaign has nothing to do with this — it makes a mockery of it. But it has so bombarded the airwaves that many people have come to consider this “normal” and “balanced” news.
This is not healthy, either for the body politic, or for those who are easily taken in by this kind of rhetoric. In a previous column (“We like you, John! We really, really like you!” — Dec. 5 Stripes), Coulter attempted to smear Rep. John Murtha by questioning his military service. She is questioning Murtha’s Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. Murtha was a Marine colonel and served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1967. She even compares Murtha to George Lincoln Rockwell, a World War II Navy pilot who founded the American Nazi Party.
Contrary to what we are told in the press, it’s not the “liberals,” those mythical beings who seem to be everywhere and are bent on the destruction of the United States, who run the military down, but people like Coulter.
It’s a pity soldiers don’t see this, as one veteran after another is slandered in the press just because he doesn’t agree with their particular brand of politics.
Mark L. Warren
Darmstadt, Germany
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=33955