These are reasons that some combat veterans don't appreciate Bush's hyper-patriotic posturing very much.
As the General's supporter and World War II bomber pilot George McGovern puts it:
Let me say that one thing that Richard Pearle [sic] and Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have in common is that none of them have ever been near a combat scene. They're perfectly willing to send younger people -- other people's sons -- into war. They're very generous with that blood of the young men and women that they throw into combat so casually. But they've protected their blood and their limbs by never serving near a battlefield. That's true of the President. It's true of the Vice President. It's true of Pearle [sic] and Wolfowitz -- that whole crowd of neo-conservatives that have the ear of the President.
Max Cleland himself has weighed in on the subject, as well. In an article warning of certain risky similaries between the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, Cleland wrote:
The president has declared "major combat over" and sent a message to every terrorist, "Bring them on." As a result, he has lost more people in his war than his father did in his and there is no end in sight.
Military commanders are left with extended tours of duty for servicemen and women who were told long ago they were going home. We are keeping American forces on the ground, where they have become sitting ducks in a shooting gallery for every terrorist in the Middle East.
Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance.
5 comments:
A lot of information here...
The issue is not whether he was AWOL or a deserter, but the special treatment given to the son of a US senator. He received the lowest passing grade on the pilot aptitude test yet moved to the front of the line. He skipped the physical right after they began testing for drugs. He apparently skipped out on his service requirements and no one seemed to care to bother to even check up on where he was...
...I'm kind of ambivalent about Bush using his family's connections to avoid Vietnam. I would have probably done the same had I been in his shoes. But I have the same problem with Bush (and some other neocons and right-wingers - for a comprehensive list, see: http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=list&category=%20NEWS%3B%20Chickenhawks) that McGovern has. After shirking their military duty, they have no problem sending other young men and women off to fight.
Yes, Wes Clark dropped the ball in the debate. Instead of his evasive answer, he should have gone on the defensive and made this an issue. But, in the strange way the world works, it seems to have become an issue anyway.
The SCLM dropped the ball -- Peter Jennings in particular -- in not investigating this story and in trying to make Michael Moore and Clark the story.
Oops! I mean offensive.
Thanks to Juliankanter who pointed out to me that I had incorrectly identified McGovern as having been a *fighter* pilot, when actually he was a *bomber*pilot. I've made the correct in the post above. - Bruce
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