Three years ago this month, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Anthony Maschek was shot eleven times during a firefight in northern Iraq.  Amazingly Sgt. Maschek survived his wounds and after two years of rehabilitation and recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., the decorated war hero enrolled at Columbia University. 

This past week during a town-hall meeting at Barack Obama’s alma mater which was held to discuss the return of ROTC to the campus, the war hero found himself under fire once again.

According to the New York Post, Sgt. Maschek, the assembled students gave the hero a disrespectful reception which included shouts of “racist!” and other taunts in addition to a wave of boos, hissing and laughter during his speech.

Maschek, 28. Had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue a challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

 

“It doesn’t matter how you feel about the war.  It doesn’t matter how you feel about fighting,” said Maschek.  “There are bad people out there plotting to kill you.”

 

[…]

 

Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk.  In the hail of gun fire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest.

 

He enrolled last August at the Ivy League school, where an increasingly ugly battle is unfolding over the 42-year military ban there.

When the matter of allowing ROTC back on campus was last debated in 2005, the point of contention was the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.”  After Mr. Obama and the lame duck legislature orchestrated the repeal of the previous policy, it was felt that the major obstacle for the return of the military to campus had been removed.  Of course, in the extreme leftist culture that dominates the once elite Ivy League schools, the anti-military fervor continues unabated as they now embrace the exclusion of transgendered service members as their latest cause.

The ROTC ban dates back to the violent protests of the Viet Nam era when students like Hillary Rodham, Bill Clinton, Bill Ayers and their comrades organized their fellow travelers in revolutionary fervor which often turned violent.  Today’s students have been indoctrinated by their leftist educators and imbued with their radical anti-American vision which was clearly evident in their disrespectful treatment of Sgt. Maschek. 

If only these youngsters had an appreciation for the historic role of our military in obtaining, securing and maintaining the very freedoms which they now enjoy they could appreciate the sacrifices of their fellow Americans like Sgt. Anthony Maschek and treat them accordingly. 

February 20, 2011

paboehmke@yahoo.com