Jim Webb Declines Naval Academy Alumni Association’s Distinguished Graduate Award

He is one of the more distinguished graduates of that institution -- Navy Cross, Silver Star, Secretary of the Navy, Senator, author, scholar, and diplomat. But he wrote an article critical of including women in combat forces back in 1979(!), so of course there were loud protests toward him being honored today. He put out a statement on his decision to decline the award, rather than cause a scene at Annapolis.
While this article was controversial, many of these protests have wrongly characterized my reasons for having written it, my views of women, and also my record of government leadership in addressing opportunities for women in the military and in our society. Having opened up more billets for women in the Navy than any Secretary of the Navy before me, it is particularly ironic to see that these same women who are criticizing me for a magazine article in 1979 have benefited so greatly from the policies I unilaterally put into place in 1987.
To defend his own honor, he compiled some statements from women who have worked with him. The truth is, he needn't have bothered. It won't convince the first one of his critics, none of whom did so much as he did himself -- not even on this score. When the field of accomplishment is widened to include the whole of human activity, he remains distinguished well above almost any of his contemporaries.

5 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I think people who make such complaints should be required to debate them. I don't mind if they have coaches and seconds - in fact I encourage it.

Teddy Roosevelt and The Man In The Arena comes to mind.

Tom said...

AVI, yes, that's a good idea. Especially when people at service academies make these complaints.

raven said...

This backing down just empowers the harpies.
Like the guy who was lambasted for his sci-fi shirt after landing a rocket on a comet.People who bitch about stuff like that should have every vestige of western civilization removed from their life.

I once toured Bonneville Dam and was remarking on what a feat it was- an acquaintance made a face when the word "dam" was mentioned. Typical Seattle lesbian ultra PC type. The expression on her face when I asked where she thought her morning latte came from was priceless. These people are not thinkers. The idea of consequences, trade-offs, diminishing returns, etc, are completely lost to them. They think everything is free, both in a monetary sense, and a consequence sense. I have no doubt she would have happily voted to remove the dams, then been perplexed why her toaster did not work.

The descent of leftism into talking points, bizarrely insane behavior and belief systems may be recent- I was reading "Ken" a short lived leftist publication from the 1930's, and it was a breath of air- although I disagreed with much of it, they could actually state a proposition, expound on an idea, and debate possible outcomes. The sense was you could have a beer and argue with them without being called names the first time disagreement came up.
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Ymar Sakar said...

The sense was you could have a beer and argue with them without being called names the first time disagreement came up.

That was the mainstream front for the audience. Look into the actual Marxists and Communist secret societies in 1930. They were every bit as radical and totalitarian as Stalin or the US is today.

BloodSpite said...

Webb was the only D candidate I would have actually considered. I hate to see this type of stuff come up after over 30 years. Just asinine.