RIP David Hackworth

[theknife]

Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and an advocate for military reform, has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 74.

Hackworth died Wednesday in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer.

if you've ever watched any tv coverage during the initial marketing of the Iraq war, you probably saw this guy. he was hard to miss and hard to forget. not just another talking head:

Colonel David H. Hackworth is America's most decorated living soldier, with more than one hundred awards, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, ten Silver Stars, eight Bronze Stars for valor, and eight Purple Hearts, which he considers the most meaningful because, he says, "they can't be faked."

a strong advocate for the common soldier and a harsh critic of the administration's handling of Bush's war:

A Newsweek correspondent during the Gulf War, Hackworth worked in recent years as a syndicated columnist for King Features, often criticizing the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war

"Most combat vets pick their fights carefully. They look at their scars, remember the madness and are always mindful of the fallout,'' Hackworth wrote in February. "That's not the case in Washington, where the White House and the Pentagon are run by civilians who have never sweated it out on a battlefield.''

the retired colonel calls Donald Rumsfeld an "asshole" whose bad planning mired U.S. troops in an ugly guerrilla conflict in Iraq. His sources? Defiant soldiers sending dispatches from the front.

Hackworth ignited a national debate last year when he reported that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used a machine to sign condolence letters sent to the families of fallen soldiers. Rumsfeld later promised to sign each letter by hand.

a better friend to the troops than all the chicken hawks in Washington - RIP, Col. Hackworth


http://www.annonline.com/interviews/...biography.html
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5387545.html
http://www.hackworth.com/index2.html

[floydian slip]

he will be missed

he was a good guy