A Romantic Moron, a Romantic Liar
"I must say, I'm a little envious…if I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed…it must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.”
Mr. Bush on the troops, 14 March 2008 at the Economic Club of New York. Here was President Bush’s attempt to make up for all the faux pas he has delivered to the troops: the jokes he told months before the 2004 election, the swiftboating of John Kerry and the irrefutable, irrevocable destruction of Senator Kerry’s name as a veteran, the countless times he has refused to meet with Cindy Sheehan, a gold-star mother and not just some political activist, and being in cahoots with Blackwater and Halliburton, allowing them free reign as hired guns-mercenaries- giving them three times the pay and furthered protection, withholding troops promised to come home, not to come home indefinitely, and not giving troops any timetable from which their time in Iraq will ultimately end. How romantic and envious, indeed.
Mr. Bush’s attempt to ‘make nice’ to his subordinates came off looking like Minuit’s attempt to ‘make nice’ with the Lenape-give them praise or material goods in order to snooker them some more. While Bush and his Republican colleagues will not vote on a timetable to get the men and women of Iraq out of there-even as leverage for the Iraqi government to do something, they also will not investigate Blackwater’s shooting of Iraqi civilians, nor their possible smuggling of weapons to the Kurds-at taxpayers’ expense of course-nor Halliburton’s countless violations of our trust and of our ethics: their overpricing of their and former subsidiary KBR’s services-again, at taxpayers’ expense-the unethical ties to Mr. Cheney, and the gang rape of a contractor. Why has this not been investigated? In turn, the soldier has been turned into propaganda. Cases in point: Corporal Pat Tillman, a great man who gave up millions of dollars to fight in Afghanistan, had his death used as propaganda to continue our “War on Terror”- as far as going to say that he had been killed by a Taliban convoy, instead of friendly fire-and possibly murdered. When Private Jessica Lynch was rescued from her prison of war, her story became a virtual ad campaign for war in Iraq. Quoting Lynch, “They used me to symbolize all this stuff. It's wrong. I don't know why they filmed [my rescue] or why they say these things.”
And Mr. Bush stated that “if I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.” First of all, when he was much younger, he could have fought in a war, he could have had this fantastic experience. It was called the Vietnam War. He could have volunteered, he could have fought on the front lines just like Senator Kerry, just like Senator Max Cleland, who came home from Vietnam with just an arm- he could have brought glory to his name. He could have been drafted and faced it, just like thousands who did and came home, or did and died. Instead, he chose to go into the Texas Air National Guard-where he could have served diligently and with respect. Instead, he went AWOL- this is fact, not CBS-fabricated lies. Mr. Bush went not to fight against the Viet Cong, but instead fought for the Republican senatorial candidate in Alabama.
Mr. Bush, you could have fought before. You could have been the Great American Soldier to which you romanticize. And you can be that soldier now. While still Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II went to the Eastern Front, leading on the front lines at war, instead of leading in St. Petersburg. While still Emperor of France, Napoleon fought and faced his worst battles while the executive. John Dickinson, delegate from Pennsylvania at the 2nd Continental Congress, became a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania militia, and then the Delaware militia, in the Revolutionary War. Julius Caesar, the man Bush seems so much to emulate via his wishes to extend his executive powers to the point of dictatorship, continued to fight Pompey as Dictator, gaining enough power to become emperor.
Mr. Bush, follow this long line of leaders in your war. The populace believes this is your war. The corporations which you have so diligently bankrolled believe this is your war. The Capitol believes this is your war. Why don’t you make it your war? Why don’t you follow this romantic dream of yours, Mr. Bush? Confront the danger you have fomented! Make the history you have created, what will be remembered as a dark time in American history, following in the line of Hoover, Harding, Adams! Follow your dream! If you are to romanticize a war the men and women serving abroad disagree with, go to war and romanticize your own self.
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