Tuesday, September 18, 2012

A Salute Requires More Than a Single Extended Finger

I'm beginning to wish I'd watched the Democratic convention:

The Democratic National Committee has already apologized for using a photo of four Soviet-era Russian warships in a giant stage backdrop intended to illustrate the party’s support for military personnel and veterans.

That huge image, visible in the Time Warner Cable Arena during speeches by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and retired Admiral John B. Nathman, also depicted a synchronized formation of jet aircraft that convention-goers assumed were American fighter planes.

But the F-5 fighter planes in the photo are part of the air force of Turkey, a nation whose government is now jailing journalists and establishing Islam as a state religion.

When I heard about the Russian ships and F-5s, I assumed that the planes must have been jet trainers similar to the F-5 since we don't fly F-5s. It didn't occur to me that the planes were F-5s but not American.

I think we can all be grateful that the DNC didn't include a picture of "American" Army troops.

It was a picture and not a video that the DNC made, so under current guidelines for understandable rage I guess I can't get all justifiably insulted to the point where I riot at a local Democratic Party headquarters.

Were any Americans involved at all in that so-called salute to the American military?