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November 23, 2010

Trail of Two War Medals

By Michael Shaw

An interesting juxtaposition. Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, receives applause from the traders at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday while Joe Glenton, who served with the Royal Logistic Corps and served six months in a military prison for going AWOL, returned his campaign medal in protest last Friday to Ten Downing Street.
I’m especially drawn to the two seats of power, and how much the Stock Exchange (like the American sports stadium) has become a primary platform for celebrating our warriors — cultural commodities and impermanent icons that they are.  I was also wondering what would happen if Glenton was American and tried to make a similar delivery to the White House … and if we would ever hear about it.   (By the way, check out the Glenton/10 Downing Street slideshow where he actually takes care of business at the door.)

(photo #1: Seth Wenig/AP. #2: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe)

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  • under2flags

    “…I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.”

  • Vvoter

    Giunta’s medal is also providing some on the religious right to take shots at the “feminization” of the medal of honor – now that it’s being awarded for saving lives instead of taking them.

    In a way, the image of Giunta – with the mini-skirted babe amongst decorated soldiers, all male, gazes fixed on the youthful hero – confuses any reflexive resistance we might throw up to the feminzation narrative.

    One could just as easily say, on the other hand, that the image offers material rebuttal to the feminzation narrative.

    Meanwhile, Glenton’s move requires a quality of honor unique unto itself.

    • http://leftistmoon.wordpress.com Wordsmith

      The ‘mini-skirted babe’ is Giunta’s wife. I saw an interview with the two of them on CSPAN some time ago.

  • http://reciprocity-failure.blogspot.com Stan B.

    Could they possibly make the connection any more blatantly clear and obvious- that the military and finance walk hand in hand?

    Somebody give Giunta a copy of War Is A Racket, and somebody give Glenton a medal for returning his…

  • http://motherrr.blogspot.com cmac

    I see something like envy in the faces turned towards Giunta. The traders labor every day in a paper pit; how much more exciting to operate in a theater of war. Giunta’s tolerant smile says their admiration is not returned. It’s the haunted look on Giunta’s wife’s face, though, which tells us the most about this war-and-money game. She knows what it is to wonder every day if her husband is still alive, still whole, still coming home.

  • playera

    Why does receiving an national honor include a trip to the Wall Street stock exchange? Does it “honor” the recipient, show him off, instill “honor” in the traders, inspire service and bravery, or what?

  • Seitan Worshiper

    Dovetailing on Stan B.’s comments: The image would seem to make more explicit that Wall Street (i.e., Corporate America) is the *real* government now.

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