Who are the real heroes here?

Who Really Deserves All The Medals?

What would you call this? A weapon of mass delusional obfuscation?

After all, honoring two men who were bigger screw-ups in their jobs than George Custer, Gen. Pickett and Neville Chamberlain had to be like giving a medal to the captain of the Titanic for his superb navigational skills.

But there they were, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Viceroy to Iraq Paul Bremer, having ribbons hung around their necks as they received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

This was the same George Tenet who misread the intelligence data of Saddam Hussein's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction - a lethal gaffe that has cost America about 1,300 combat fatalities and 10,000 battlefield casualties.

Swiss Miss

And it was Bremer, a bigger yes man than Fredo Corleone, whose bureaucratic blunders in overseeing the American occupation in Iraq only served to fuel the ongoing and growing insurgency that has turned the country into a virtual killing field.

So after proving to be two of the biggest stumblebums since Laurel and Hardy tried to push a piano across a rope bridge over the Alps in ``Swiss Miss,'' Tenet and Bremer are awarded the nation's most revered civilian tribute?!?

Wouldn't that be like giving Princess Diana's very late driver Chauffeur of the Year honors?

Also on hand to get a medal from the commander in chief was retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who probably received his award as much for his self-discipline in not punching Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the mouth as for his success in toppling Saddam .

Yet, the deeper obscenity in handing out medals to Tenet and Bremer was that while these two centurions of incompetence were getting lathered with phony praise, a group of soldiers who were sent into George Bush's war were fighting court-martial and dishonorable discharges - all for doing their duty.

Catch-22

In Ohio, six reservists, members of the 656th Transportation Company, were court-martialed, charged with theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up their evil-doing.

And just what exactly was the horrible, dreadful, felonious behavior these soldiers engaged in?

While on duty in Kuwait, the reservists appropriated Army vehicles abandoned by other units and stripped them for parts to improve their own trucks in order to deliver fuel to U.S. forces fighting in Iraq.

This was hardly a ``Catch-22'' Milo Minderbender moment.

But because the soldiers showed some initiative in a combat zone to do their jobs, they were court- martialed instead.

One of the soldiers, Chief Warrant Officer Darrell Birt, a decorated combat veteran, recently was released after serving a six-month sentence. And the unit's commander, Maj. Cathy Kaus, is about to finish her prison term.

All the reservists were demoted and given dishonorable discharges with the loss of benefits - all for appropriating abandoned vehicles to deliver gasoline.

At the absolute worst, these soldiers are guilty of an egregious disregard for paperwork.

Alas, their lives are ruined. They will be ex-cons. They are viewed - officially at least - as disreputable soldiers who failed their country.

Tenet promoted false intelligence claims and told the whopper of the century leading to the deaths of thousands of people.

Yet, Bremer arrogantly bollixed his stewardship of Iraq with an utter ignorance of the competing cultural, political and religious reality on the ground resulting in a thriving insurgency that threatens the stability of the region. Yet, these two mopes get medals.

Who are the real heroes here? The bureaucrats? Or the scroungers?

Columnist Daniel Ruth can be reached at (813) 259-7599.