However, when you say that I have "decided to hate anything he says or does," you imply that my contempt for Bush is irrational, and that is not the case. I despise Bush because of what HE has done, because of the profound damage to American democracy and to our national security and to our status in the world for which HE is responsible. I don’t hate "anything he says or does"; I hate what he HAS said and done, and continues to say and do.
]]>Because wearing a red dress to a funeral draws attention to the person wearing it, when the attention should be on the mourners.
That said, my analogy is imperfect, because it did not really make the point I was trying to make. Pres. Bush’s reckless and criminal decisions and actions in starting an unprovoked and completely unnecessary and unjustified war are what led to over 4,000 American dead and tens of thousands wounded, some grievously, in body and mind. That being the case, telling a reporter that he’s given up golf to show his respect for the American troops who have fought in Iraq is not merely insufficient; it is positively insulting.
]]>Anyway- this is way too silly of a discussion and I’m not even comfortable to have spent as much time on it as I already have so I’ll leave it at that.
]]>If Bush truly believes that by giving up golf he is considering the feelings of American families whose loved ones are gone, never to return, or the feelings of Iraq war veterans, who have lost arms or legs, or have traumatic head injuries, or who struggle every day depression and anger and suicidal feelings, then anyone would have to agree that he is an idiot. There is no connection between a decision to play golf and respect for the unimaginable sacrifice, loss, and anguish experienced by military families, active duty soldiers, and returning veterans. None whatsoever.
]]>You don’t think it’s implicit in his statement that he thinks it’s a sacrifice? You don’t think that he thinks he’s giving up something he enjoys when he says he’s decided not to play golf out of respect to the troops? If he didn’t enjoy golf, what was the point in giving it up? If he didn’t enjoy golf, why did he play it in the first place?
]]>"Not only is it a hollow, trivial sacrifice at best, Bush’s story doesn’t hold water. While he dates his decision to abjure golf to Aug. 19, 2003 — the day a truck bomb in Baghdad killed U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and more than a dozen others — the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2003, that he’d spent a "cool, breezy Columbus Day" playing "a round of golf with three long-time buddies."Bush played at Andrews Air Force Base with Clay Johnson, Office of Management and Budget deputy director, Richard Hauser, Department of Housing and Urban Development general counsel and another friend, Mike Wood."On that outing, he was typically full of what passes for good humor at the White House. The AP reported: "’Fine looking crew you got there. Fine looking crew,’ Bush joked to reporters. ‘That’s what we’d hope for presidential coverage. Only the best.’"He hit a couple of practice balls before flaring his tee-off shot."
]]>Which as Pat has already pointed out, is untrue: Bush didn’t ‘blurt it out’, he answered a question that a reporter asked him. There’s absolutely no evidence that he’s ‘pleased with himself’, or that he feels it is a ’sacrifice’.
]]>I take second place to no one in my contempt for congressional spinelessness when it comes to bucking Bush. We were talking about Bush’s decision to stop playing golf out of "respect" for American soldiers fighting in Iraq, however, so I was focusing on that specific point. In other words, my intention was to mention the matter of Bush’s lack of action on behalf of veterans’ health care as it contrasted with his desire to show "respect" — in a way that really cost him nothing.
It’s not an excuse that Congress couldn’t act due to being afraid that GWB would be a big meanie and frame the issue as though they weren’t supporting the troops.
I could not agree more, but this was not my point. My point was that Bush did NOT ask for any increase in funding for veterans’ health care. He did NOT tell Congress he wanted to see legislation that would ensure, through funding and spending priorities, that the thousands of Iraq war veterans with traumatic head injuries and/or suffering from severe and often suicidal depression would get the care they need. So there was nothing for Congress to not want to act on, because Bush did not demand that they act on this matter.
Of course that does not mean Congress should not have taken the initiative to act on its own — which is, as Pat noted, what Congress is supposed to do. If Congress HAD written such legislation, allocating millions of additional dollars specifically to making first-class medical and mental health services available to *every veteran who needed it,* plus outreach services to veterans who might be reluctant to seek care because of the enormous stigma against acknowledging, much less seeking help for, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression and suicidal ideation, would Bush have signed it? My answer is, absolutely not, no way, not a chance in the world. He would have vetoed it.
That’s where congressional spinal fortitude should come in, of course. But it’s also a fact that what Bush wants, Bush — the vast majority of the time throughout these eight years — gets. He bullies, strong-arms, name-calls, patriotism-baits, etc., etc., etc., until Congress caves, which it always always does. So if Bush really wanted to help veterans, or show respect for veterans’ concerns and needs, in a way that could have actually meant something, he would have done so in no uncertain terms.
He did not want to. Instead, he blurted out, like a very small child, that he gave up golf to show the troops he respects them. That is not the behavior of a grown, fully mature adult.
Bush may be very pleased with himself that he gave up golf for the troops, but I can guarantee you that the troops themselves do not give a tinker’s damn about this "sacrifice." It’s laughable. Or it would be if it were not so repulsive.
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