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May 30, 2005

Honoring our fallen soldiers one lie at a time

I know Memorial Day is almost over, but I just read this post over at the Tattered Coat and got goose bumps. Not only that, but he mentions fetishes several times. Not sure if it was all that fetish talk or Matt's great writing that gave me goose bumps, but go read the whole thing. It's fabulous.

I saw Bush's speech this afternoon on CNN or MSNBC. All I could think about was the hypocrisy. Bush is talking about honoring our fallen soldiers when he couldn't even fulfill his duty to the Texas and Alabama National Guard. What a loser president we have.

If he understood that sacrifice, he would have done everything in his
power to make sure that the vehicles our soldiers ride in had more than
enough protective armor to shield them. If he understood that sacrifice,
he would have attended the funeral of a fallen soldier. If he understood
that sacrifice, he would have made sure that those who misrepresented Pat
Tillman'’s death lost their jobs. If he understood that sacrifice, he
would have apologized for taking the country to war on the basis of lies.

There has to be a middle ground between honoring the fallen and using
them for political advantage. Because in the end, the people who died on
9/11, and the soldiers who died while serving this country, deserve better
than to be turned into political props and recruitment posters.


Now I haven't looked at a transcript of Bush's speech today, and I'm not going to because it's late and I'm sleepy, but when he said something like "America has always been the reluctant warrior," I laughed out loud. Pre-emptive, lying, doing-no-good warrior maybe. But reluctant? Come on.

5 Comments:

  • At May 31, 2005, Blogger Alicia Morgan said…

    It's interesting that he used the word 'fetish' - not as a sexual word, which most people would naturally understand it, but as its true meaning, which is the objectification of a thing as a substitute for the real thing. "Ground Zero" took on a meaning totally separate from the reality of the destruction of the Twin Towers and the thousands of lives lost along with it. It became an advertisement, pure and simple - a piece of propaganda completely unrelated to reality.

     
  • At May 31, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    He really is a sick man , and he doesn't have hitler's charisma, but he does have his narrow way of thinking.

     
  • At May 31, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Somone once said - i think it might have been Wilde - that Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

     
  • At June 02, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It's interesting that he used the word 'fetish' - not as a sexual word, which most people would naturally understand it, but as its true meaning, which is the objectification of a thing as a substitute for the real thing.

    If nothing else, ten years of grad school teaches one those kinds of things...

    Thanks for reading, everybody, and thanks, Cookie, for the kind words.

     
  • At June 02, 2005, Blogger cookie christine said…

    Ten years of grad school!!?? Geez. It only took me three years. Maybe you were doing it wrong.

     

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