The gang in the White House is once again reminding us how long eight years can really be. By this time next year we will at least know who will be replacing George the Lesser and his gaggle of incompetents. At this rate I'll take anybody...Ron Paul...RuPaul...Les Paul...Pope John Paul...anybody.
Sunday was Veterans Day. This day, above all others, should have found Bush, Cheney and their minions hiding in an undisclosed location, possibly the same one they hid in during 9/11. The track record of the Bush Administration concerning the military (multiple tours in Iraq, Walter Reed medical care, lies about Jessica Lynch and Pat Tilman, paying Blackwater mercenaries ten times the pay of servicemen, no presidential attendance at any soldier's funeral), practically demands their silence.
A moratorium on public pronouncements should have been observed with particular vigor by the Vice President. When it came his time to serve, Dick Cheney did everything but borrow one of Cpl. Klinger's dresses to avoid wearing his country's uniform. He dreamed up deferments that would have impressed Abbie Hoffman. George Bush might have had a little help sliding into the Texas Air National Guard but at least he served in some capacity. Cheney, then as now, left the fighting to others.
Let's be frank. Many of us who served during the Vietnam era would have graciously declined the invitation had that been an option. Not too many were anxious to engage the population of Southeast Asia personally. Nevertheless there was a certain sense of national service that was passed down to my generation from the veterans of WW II (who were also our parents, neighbors and family friends). We may have opposed the war but no one hid in the basement or fled to Canada. (My opposition to the war intensified as my induction drew closer.) My father said that dissent was a privilege and must be earned. It's called putting some skin in the game. Guys like Ron Kovic and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War had more credibility in America than the protesters at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 because they had served. The concept of electing ex-servicemen to high office stems, in part, from the notion that those who have seen combat will be cautious when committing other to fight. Bill Clinton, the first modern President to have avoided military service, used his powers as Commander-in Chief only twice. The poorly conceived incursion in Somalia left both the President and the Army with a bloody nose. American forces committed to Bosnia fared better if only because the fighting had largely stopped before we arrived. Clinton was pressed constantly and correctly, over his draft evasion.
But I digress. The Vice President, in an epic display of chutzpah, appeared at Arlington National Cemetery to spew meaningless cliches over the most hallowed ground in America. It's a wonder that the ghost of Gen. George C. Marshall didn't rise up and kick his ass off the property. Cheney spoke of freedom. "...free to live as we see fit, free to work, worship and speak our minds." Naturally, Mr. Cheney neglected to mention that his credo left the defense of those freedoms to others. He was otherwise occupied. However, Dick left a few "freedoms" out of his remarks. He might have included:
- free to avoid serving America in uniform but free to send thousands of other Americans to fight in your own agenda-driven war.
- free to endanger the lives of CIA agents in order to exact political retribution (see also Valerie Plame).
- freedom to distort the truth at every turn, whether the subject is WMD's or Pat Tilman's death.
- freedom to vilify gay people in America while professing to protect the privacy of your own lesbian daughter.
I don't know an American veteran who doesn't look back on his service with pride. Whether or not any of us ever knew the dubious distinction of being shot at (I was spared that honor) we all sense that, at a time in America when the call went out, we answered, however reluctantly. During that time, the Vice President of the United States chose to remain silent. He should have the grace to continue that silence on Veteran's Day.
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