Bush Even Smears Veterans Day
While most American presidents have chosen to take some time off from politics on Veterans Day, there was President Bush on Friday using that solemn day to push his own partisan agenda and prop up his failed Iraq policy.
Given his own lack of service, his direct culpability for the deaths of over 2,000 military men and women in his Iraq war and the extent to which his administration turns its back on Veterans once they’re home, I had hoped he would just hole up in the White House and say nothing. At the very least, I thought he would make a public appearance, give some scripted comments about the service and sacrifice of America’s vets and then go back to the business of ruining our country.
No such luck.
Instead, Bush chose to appear before a military audience at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania and use the opportunity to bash Democrats and opponents of the Iraq war and to defend his twisted version of what the “war on terror” means.
“While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” said Bush “Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war.”
“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will,” Bush continued. “As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory.”
Wow. It's almost as if he's implying that if you're against him, you're against the troops as well... There's a shocker. And in the litany of things we owe our troops, there's no mention of them deserving to be told the truth about why they’re in Iraq -- at least that omission is honest. But he did take the time to throw this line in for the trillionth time:
“The war came to our shores on September the 11th, 2001. That morning, we saw the destruction that terrorists intend for our nation,” said the misleader-in-chief.
Meanwhile, he spent little time doing anything that actually paid tribute to Veterans in this disgusting abuse of his national pulpit. But that shouldn’t surprise any of us – he isn’t a Veteran himself and, in the circles he runs, he certainly doesn’t know many.
But I bet if he has his way with an executive order, and we ever begin having a national celebration of “Chickenhawks Day” there won’t be a dry eye in the house when he speaks of his own kind.
Given his own lack of service, his direct culpability for the deaths of over 2,000 military men and women in his Iraq war and the extent to which his administration turns its back on Veterans once they’re home, I had hoped he would just hole up in the White House and say nothing. At the very least, I thought he would make a public appearance, give some scripted comments about the service and sacrifice of America’s vets and then go back to the business of ruining our country.
No such luck.
Instead, Bush chose to appear before a military audience at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania and use the opportunity to bash Democrats and opponents of the Iraq war and to defend his twisted version of what the “war on terror” means.
“While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” said Bush “Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war.”
“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will,” Bush continued. “As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory.”
Wow. It's almost as if he's implying that if you're against him, you're against the troops as well... There's a shocker. And in the litany of things we owe our troops, there's no mention of them deserving to be told the truth about why they’re in Iraq -- at least that omission is honest. But he did take the time to throw this line in for the trillionth time:
“The war came to our shores on September the 11th, 2001. That morning, we saw the destruction that terrorists intend for our nation,” said the misleader-in-chief.
Meanwhile, he spent little time doing anything that actually paid tribute to Veterans in this disgusting abuse of his national pulpit. But that shouldn’t surprise any of us – he isn’t a Veteran himself and, in the circles he runs, he certainly doesn’t know many.
But I bet if he has his way with an executive order, and we ever begin having a national celebration of “Chickenhawks Day” there won’t be a dry eye in the house when he speaks of his own kind.
posted by Bob Geiger at 11/14/2005 12:20:00 PM
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