The Tragic Story Of Captain Michael Scott Speicher

Occasionally the local, national and international coalesce when it comes to news and this morning brought one of those stories to the forefront. During the 1991 Gulf War local pilot Captain Michael Scott Speicher was shot down over Iraq and lost his life during the liberation of Kuwait. The pilot based out of the now closed Naval Air Station Cecil Field became a bit of a local hero because of his status of being the first American killed during the conflict. The middle school that my sister would end up graduating from was almost named for the pilot and Captain Speicher deserved this praise due to his service to his country. But Captain Speicher would later be used in the calculated attempt to deceive the country into another conflict with Iraq.

As the Bush administration built the case for the another invasion of Iraq in the confusing post 9/11 world it latched onto the story of Captain Speicher and used the man as a public relations tool. After the military had decided he had been killed in action, it suddenly decided that he had been MIA captured a day after Congress authorized military action against Iraq to disarm it of it’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. I was a teacher at the time and remember every day crossing the St. Johns River and seeing a “Free Scott Speicher” sign on the shore of someone’s property right next to the Buckman Bridge. The local public ate it up and was behind the war 100% after that. I knew the entire thing was a calculated use of someone who was obviously and tragically dead to further a bogus claim for war. Much like the phantom WMD I was proved right on this one as well.

This morning news has come that Captain Speicher’s remains have been confirmed found and he was shot down and killed in Iraq just as it was always known during the 1991 Gulf war and not as a captive in an Iraqi prison as the Bush administration wanted us to believe in the run up to their disastrous 2003 boondoggle. Scott Speicher was always a hero for serving his country, but in a way he’s a casualty of both wars. The one he actually served and died in, and the one he was used as a bullshit political propaganda tool for. May he now rest in peace.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 at 6:18 am and is filed under History, Iraq War, Media, Politics, World Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.