Joe “Ragman” Tarnovsky: Dear Senator McConnell

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821

CowardNovember 22, 2010

Senator Mitch McConnell
361-A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2541

Dear Senator McConnell:

Recently, our past president, George W. Bush, wrote in his memoirs, Decision Points, that you met privately with him and urged the President to withdrawal troops from Iraq in September of 2006 when American casualties were mounting and there was a strong possibility that a civil insurrection between the different factions that composed the populace of the country could be taking place. Your request was valid, many of us wanted to bring our troops home as many Americans, myself included, did not want to see anymore of our military dying, injured and disfigured in a war that was based on lies.

The president went onto say the reason for your request to withdraw our troops was because you did not want to see your party take a drubbing in the upcoming mid-term elections for 2006! I firmly believe there are two sides to every story, Senator McConnell, but to the best of my knowledge, I have not heard you respond publicly to these assertions made by the president of your own political party.

If the accusations by President George W. Bush about the meeting between you and him are not true, why have you not challenged him? If they are true, Sir, then you owe an explanation to the voters, not only from Kentucky which I am one of, but to the entire country for your hypocrisy on the war in Iraq. You publicly chided the Democrats for urging troop withdrawals during this time period from Iraq, calling them the party of retreat, but then you meet privately with George W. Bush and advocate the same strategy to stave off a possible hemorrhage in the elections that would take place two months later? If this is true, Senator McConnell, I find your conduct despicable and reprehensible! Is that what the men and women of our military have become while they fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, pawns used to garner votes for you and your party?

Senator McConnell, you voted for the Iraq War Resolution on October 2nd, 2002, you have continuously supported that war even when there were no weapons of mass destruction found and you publicly championed the troop surge but privately want a troop withdraw to help the Republicans in an election? Do you know, Sir, the meaning of hypocrisy?

EXPLANATIONS FOR YOUR LACK OF MILITARY SERVICE 

Another point of contention, Senator, for me, is your military record. Reading your biography on the Internet, Senator McConnell, there seems to be some confusion about the reasons you did not serve during the height of the Vietnam War, my war and the war for 2.7 million other Americans that answered their country’s call to fight communism. Some of your staff have said you had polio as a child and/or optic neuritis but yet you joined the 100th Division, an Army Reserve in Kentucky in 1967.  My question is why did you join an Army Reserve Unit whose chances of going to Vietnam were “slim and next to none” when you could have joined the regular Army and volunteered to fight in Vietnam? That is what I did, Senator, I joined the United States Army and requested duty in South Vietnam while living in Kentucky because our country was trying to stop the “red menace.” There were many other Americans that volunteered for duty in South Vietnam too, Senator McConnell, like me, it was important to them to answer our country’s call for military duty to help defend our Southeast Asia ally.

Did Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) at that time, you were a former intern for his office, write a letter to the commanding general of Fort Knox where you were stationed, Major General A.D. Surles, asking him to expedite your release from the 100th Division so you could attend New York University (NYU)? What I don’t understand, Sir, is why, after earning a Bachelor’s Degree and Law Degree that you would want to attend NYU. According to what I have read, NYU has no record of you ever applying to their school, much less attending. How did you manage to get out of the Army Reserves without ever having gone through the training?

In closing, Senator McConnell, it looks as though you took the easy way out when it came to represent our country in a military uniform and, unfortunately, there are many politicians like you on Capitol Hill that came of age during the Vietnam War but failed to serve. Did you or did you not purportedly say about troops withdraws from Iraq what former President George W Bush contends in his new book? Did Senator John Sherman Cooper write a letter to the commanding general of Fort Knox wanting your release from the armed forces expedited so you could attend NYU? Why would you want to attend NYU when you already had a Bachelor’s and Law Degree? Why join the Army Reserves in the first place when our country was at war and needed you in Vietnam like the other 2.7 million Americans that served in that war?

I write for an online veteran publication, Senator McConnell, VETERANS TODAY, my letter to you and your reply will be posted in my column as there are many veterans and their supporters who would like answers for the questions I have submitted to you.

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Joe is a Vietnam Combat Veteran, having served 26 months in the Republic Of South Vietnam, 10 months with Company A, 27th Combat Engineers, 28 August 1968 to June 1969, and 16 months as a crewchief/doorgunner with the 240th Assault Helicopter company on UH-1C Hueys, the Mad Dog Gunship Platoon from July 1969 to 22 October 1970. Joe graduated from Cuyahoga Community College in 1982 with a Associate Of Arts Degree and from Cleveland State University in 1986 with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology; he also accumulated 12 hours of graduate work at Cleveland State. He lives with his best friend, his wife, and they have 34 rescued cats, 7 rescued dogs. Joe has spoken at high schools and colleges for 25 years about PTSD, war and how not to treat returning veterans when they come home to America after fighting for their country.