When you babble on for 21 hours, with no one really listening, it's possible some of the outrageous things you say get overlooked. I couldn't listen, as I find Ted Cruz so offensive. But some on Daily Kos and some in the media braved the storm, and waded in to catch a few zingers. They generously shared them with the rest of us. But they missed a big one.
Last night, I caught one nobody has mentioned. At the very end of 21 hours of grandstanding, he said:
“I want to thank the men and women who have endured this Bataan death march,”
Really? He compared the 21 hours of bringing notice to himself to the Bataan Death March? What a self-centered, pompous ass.
For those unfamiliar with the Bataan Death March, I'll fill you in.
The Bataan Death March which began on April 9, 1942, was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60-80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. All told, approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100-650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination at Camp O'Donnell.
The 128 km (80 mi) march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.
I know about this atrocity because
Eighteen hundred New Mexico soldiers from the 200th/515th Coast Artillery of the National Guard were deployed to the Philippines in World War II.
So, it's a big deal in New Mexico.
Every year in early spring, the local VFW sponsors a march at White Sand Missile Range, 20 or so miles east of Las Cruces. Additionally, one of our frontage roads in named Bataan Memorial.
If you read the article from Wikipedia (linked above), it talks about the inhumane treatment the soldiers experienced along the route. Half of them died. And half of that half died before being transferred home. They died horrible deaths.
Cruz is right. What he did for 21 hours of his life is exactly like those who suffered the Bataan Death March. No food. Dirty water. Being prodded with bayonets. Being killed when no longer able to walk. All that after having been POW's.
Yeah, same thing.