(John Glenn is not a favorite Senator, but he sure makes some good points here!) JOHN GLENN SAID Things that make you think a little: There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: a. FDR led us into World War II. b. Germany never attacked us; Japan did. &From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost . an average of 112,500 per year. c. Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. &From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost ... an average of 18,334 per year. d John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. e. Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. &From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost .. an average of 5,800 per year. f. Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions. g. In the years since terrorists attacked us , President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking. But It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.. We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick. It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!! Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts But Wait . There's more! JOHN GLENN (ON THE SENATE FLOOR) Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13 Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living. This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military. Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn): "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?" Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank." "I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a veteran's hospital and look those men ... with their mangled bodies . in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job. You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job? What about you?" For those who don't remember .. During WW.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA. Now he's a Senator! If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran. It might not be a bad idea to keep this circulating
Though I agree that Americans ought to maintain an historical perspective when viewing current events and greatly admire John Glenn, some anonymous writer, not John Glenn, penned the comparisons of fatalities sufferred during America's various wars. That comparison has been circulating on the Internet since at least 2004. In 2005, it was apparently tacked onto a slightly distorted version of an exchange between John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum during the 1974 Democratic primary for one of Ohio's senate seats.
Howard Metzenbaum actually said Glenn had never "met a payroll", implying Glenn's military backround hadn't prepared him as well for the position as senator as Metzenbaum's business background. Metzenbaum's statement wasn't true as Glenn had also been a business executive with Royal Crown Cola. Metzenbaum emphasized Glenn's military background by calling hime "Colonel Glenn" during the primary perhaps hoping to play on the lingering suspicion of the military after the Vietnam War.
Though, of course, it is not uncommom still for rival politicians to denigrate another's military service attempting to turn what otherwise might be perceived as a positive factor for a candidate into a negative factor as was done when the Republican Party created "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" during the Bush/Kerry presidential race.
Glenn's response to Metzenbaum, though it was not given on the Senate floor as the email message states, is essentially a fairly accurate version of Glenn's response to Metzenbaum on the issue. Glenn won the Democratic nomination and then the Senate seat carrying all of Ohio's 88 counties.
The part about Howard Metzenbaum representing the Communist Party during World War II seems to be totally unsubstantiated. Apparently the writer of the message or some later contributor wanted to make absolutely sure readers perceived Howard Metzenbaum as the villian of this Internet tale. Such over-the-top addendums are common to such messages.
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