And it's up against the wall American Muthers, Barbara Bush, who raised her son so well. Now Dubya's out there smirkin' in God's honky tonk, Just kickin' soldiers' asses and raisin' hell. ~~apologies to Jerry Jeff Walker
Once a year, George Bush shows up at Arlington National Cemetery and tells a tightly controlled, thoroughly vetted audience that he 'preciates the sacrifice of those who volunteered to die "in freedom's cause." There, surrounded by silent tombstones and armed Secret Service Police, this most infamous of military deserters befouls not only the hallowed ground, but the very air, as he regurgitates words he babbled the year before...and the year before. He reminds us that America is a "reluctant warrior," but we are resolved; our will must not be broken, no matter how many sacrifices it takes.
During the annual photo-op, Bush reads exerpts of farewell letters allegedly from fallen soldiers and marines, all apparently honored to have died in Bush's noble cause. Their words passed on to us by Bush are eerily familiar -- stay the course -- complete the mission of ridding the world of evil -- spread freedom and democracy to the four corners of the earth. Then, after hoping that the slain heroes made peace with their Maker before being blown to bits, and a final admonishment to "support the troops," Bush cuts out until next year.
The camera never strays from Bush's twitching mouth, darting eyes -- never scans the audience so we might see who these people are who applaud him so vigorously. It must be members of his administration and those legislators who follow him around like whipped pups, for I cannot imagine mothers willing to either sacrifice their children to bolster Bush's poll numbers in a barbaric slaughterhouse that grows more bloody and chaotic every day, or to cheer him on. Somehow I cannot conjure up an image of mothers offering up their sons and daughters to a pathological narcissist killer, knowing if they are returned at all it will be either in pieces or in boxes.
Hiding the Troops
Either way, Bush is determined to protect us from seeing the steady stream of ghastly homecomings. That's what mothers are for. Bush says he wakes up every morning trying to figure out how to protect the American people, and -- like his mother says -- folks shouldn't have to worry their beautiful minds with such depressing images.
So Bush not only banned the media and the public from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where dead soldiers are secretly shuttled back in country in the dead of night, but from military installations around the world.
Bush also restricted the media from covering funerals at Arlington, apparently deciding that the best way to support the troops is to "disappear" them from our view forever. Besides, if you've seen one aluminum transfer tube covered with the old red-white-and-blue, you've seen 'em all. Why bother parading 2,500 of them past a bored, disconnected, disinterested citizenry, most of whom have no children in this fight and could care less about other people's children...
General Tommy Franks, former Central Command Commander, who developed and executed the bloody Iraq fiasco, recently told the National Rifle Association that it wasn't important how many Americans died -- that those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture. "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics."
Americans fail to realize that words mean far different things to Bush, and apparently to Franks, than they do to coherent, rational people. To Bush, "support the troops" means don't criticize him when thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocents die in an illegal, bloody mess that he lied to get us into.
Bush brags that he's a war president. He says he sits in the Oval Office with war on his mind. He doesn't read -- doesn't need to because his gut makes all the decisions, and anybody who doesn't like that is aiding and abetting the terrorists.
So -- stick a yellow ribbon on your vehicle, shut up, and support the troops.
Supporting the Troops
In the only evidence of support I am aware of, just months after getting his war on, Bush opened a new $30 million, state-of-the-art, 70,000" square-foot mortuary at Dover to support the troops, or what is left of them, when they are sneaked back to the states under cover of darkness. Since then, he has sent America's sons and daughters unprepared and unequipped into a raging guerilla insurgency with orders to kill anything that moves.
Bush and his entire Iran-Contra war-criminal chickenhawk administration are devoid of ethos; incapable of empathy or compassion, and could care less about supporting troops. Bush has said on more than one occasion, "My attitude is, any time we put one of our soldiers in harm's way, we're going to spend whatever is necessary to make sure they have the best training, the best support and the best possible equipment."
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
As a Vietnam vets thank for your OpEd News piece.Bush does not support the troops here or there.One he has let DOD put kids with mental problems like PTSD on meds and sent them back to Iraq.When the wounded troops get discharged from Military Hospitals they have to fight for their benefits.When you send kids off to fight a war you have to support them there and here the Republican do not.
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Monkeyman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 55 diaries, 43 comments)
on Monday, June 12, 2006 at 8:04:11 PM
Again, Sheila, you have performed your chosen task of "telling it like it is". In reading your account of the plight of our soldiers in Iraq, I had a sudden memory of reading of the trials of Napoleon's army in the ill-conceived attack on Russia. There, of course, the weather was cold rather than blistering hot, but many of the conditions were the same, inadequate clothing, arms, and ammunition, only an endless flood of human bodies to throw against an entrenched enemy. In the end, in hopeless retreat, ill and starving, having slain and eaten their horses, they were reduced to devouring the bodies of their comrades in arms as they fell victim to the brutal conditions.
Our own little Bonaparte similarly cares nothing for the lives of his little tin soldiers or the safety of their souls. "Victory" is all that matters to him. His only problem will be in knowing when or whether he ever achieves it.
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Mary Pitt (60 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 159 comments)
on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 8:37:25 AM
Thanks...I just got a response from a "former Marine" who said the only way to support the troops was to support President Bush. He said if we had another 9-11, he hoped everyone I loved was killed but me so I could live in grief and agony for the rest of my life.
Real bummer. Wish I could understand how a uniformed military could see so many of his counterparts killed for no good reason -- and still support their killer...
ss
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Sheila Samples (50 articles, 2999 quicklinks, 42 diaries, 332 comments)
on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 6:17:29 PM
