Did Spitting 'Victim' from D.C. Protest Cry Wolf?

There is a conventional wisdom that Vietnam War protesters included fringe elements who did uncivil things like spitting at soldiers returning from Vietnam. Evidence of this belief in the mainstream media appeared as recently as early this month in Newsweek:

Returning [Vietnam] GIs were sometimes jeered and even spat upon in airports; they learned to change quickly into civilian clothes.

Decades later, little has changed. With the headline "SPITTING MATCH WITH DISABLED VET..." the Drudge Report on Monday linked to New York Times coverage of the weekend marches against President Bush's Iraq "surge" plan to escalate the war. The story, "Protest Focuses on Iraq Troop Increase," included the following:

There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq. Sparling spoke at a smaller rally held earlier in the day at the United States Navy Memorial and voiced his support for the administration's policies in Iraq.

Later, as anti-war protesters passed where he and his group were standing, words were exchanged and one of the anti-war protestors spit at the ground near Mr. Sparling; he spit back.

Wow -- those horrible "anti-war protesters" are still at it! And what unspoken message is sent by this? That "anti-war protesters" are such terrible people, doing such terrible things.

But as it happens, Joshua Sparling has turned up time and time again in the news, in stories claiming he has been spat at by -- and even received death threats from -- left-wing "anti-war protesters."

At the site The Left Coaster, the blogger Mary wrote,

It seems [Sparling] is the scapegoat for those who hate Bush's war and he is condemned to live in a Twilight Zone world where he experiences all the outrages that were visited on vets during the Vietnam War. Whenever the wacko warhawks need to display a victim of the American people's disdain for the war, he is hauled out to take another one for the team.

Joshua Sparling first appeared in the news in a United States Military Academy Public Affairs reference, in an Aug. 8, 2005, story quoted cited by the West Point "public affairs" (PR) office, "Future Plebes Learn Crafts Of War":

Last week, as a machine gun fired blanks in the distance ... [cadets] dodged from cover-to-cover as they ran the assault course, which teaches the cadets how to use grenades in combat.

82nd Pvt. Joshua Sparling was right behind them, offering advice the whole way.

"Always have two hands on your weapon. That way if you see anybody -- boom, boom," he yelled at Byrnes as she ran for cover, her M-16 flailing at her side. ... "You have to keep down below that cover so you don't get popped in the head," Sparling yelled. Lin quickly tucked his head back behind the stump.

In December 2005, as reported on the Fox news show Fox & Friends Sparling supposedly received a Christmas card with a death threat Sparling claimed not to have kept the envelope, just the note inside.Sparling also appeared on right-wing radio host Sean Hannity's radio show to talk about this incident.

It later turned out the Christmas card death threat was sent by a white supremacist.

Sparling also found fame as a featured Republican guest at the 2006 State of the Union address, introduced by the GOP representative from his home district, Candice Miller:

"When I first spoke with Josh, he told me how proud he was to provide security for the Iraqi election in October, where he saw democracy take root. I thought it was only fitting that he come to see, in person, his commander-in-chief give an update on the war and watch our own democracy in action."

Sparling has also appeared with Ollie North at "Freedom Alliance" rallies. (There's a picture of Sparling at one of these rallies, standing next to Ann Coulter.)