Lt. Col. Bill Cowan and Imus Salute U.S. Troops on Vets Day

On this Veterans Day, Imus spoke with Lt. Col. Bill Cowan about the incredible men and women who serve this country, the future of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and, improbably, Brett Favre’s nether region.
 
Having visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center with Senator John McCain a few years ago, Imus remarked at the level of care given injured U.S. troops nowadays, but wondered if more work needs to be done.
 
“The Veterans Administration, and our hospitals, and even the American public is taking care of our vets now like never before,” Cowan, a Vietnam vet and Fox News contributor, said. Compared to the way many of his contemporaries were treated—“shunned, and spat on, in many cases”—Cowan marveled at the respect paid to America’s servicemen and women today, adding, “They deserve every bit of it.”
 
He agreed with Imus that the sense of kinship these days in the military is much stronger than it was when the two of them served. “I think that speaks a lot to the training, maybe, or the way the units are organized, or the way the leadership looks upon the wards that they have,” Cowan said.
 
Next week, Cowan and country singer Aaron Tippin will travel over to Iraq for Thanksgiving, their fourth such trip, and Cowan never ceases to be amazed by the troops. “I’m astounded at the caliber and quality of men and women we have serving our country over there,” he said.
 
Since he first visited to Iraq in 2003, Cowan has noticed definite progress there. As for Afghanistan, he doubts President Obama will enforce his previously indicated withdrawal date of July 2011, given the high level of instability in the country.
 
“People are starting to look at the year 2014 as a date for pullout, because Karzai said he thought by then his people could start taking over some of the security responsibilities,” Cowan said. “But this is not a decisive victory on the battlefield, by any means.”
 
It seems like there might be a victory, however, for those hoping to overturn the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy toward homosexuals. “Most men and women in today’s military don’t care” if their fellow soldiers are gay, Cowan told Imus, because “they’ve grown up in a different [culture] than you or I.”
 
A streak of light coming from what looked like either a plane or a missile appeared in the California sky on Tuesday, and the jury is still out on what exactly it was. “You would think, 48, 60 hours after it happened, the Defense Department could say something conclusive other than, ‘We think it was an airplane, but we’re still not sure,’” Cowan, who thinks both are possible, remarked.
 
Luckily, Imus had his own theory. “It could be Brett Favre’s penis,” he said.
 
And on that note, Happy Veterans Day!

-Julie Kanfer