Soapbox

The Purple Badge of Cowardice

Because the Republican National Convention has started, last night I watched a show on the Discovery Times channel about reporters who were in Iraq when the invasion began last April. It was a very powerful and moving show, and one that I wish the woman from my writing class (who yelled at me about dead babies’ feet) could see. I made the right choice to watch it. The Iraq story only made me cry: the Republican Convention would have made me nauseous.

As expected, the speakers were all but wrapping themselves in the shrouds of the dead from September 11th. Rodolph Guiliani, former mayor of New York, gave a speech in which he described watching a man jump to his death from the 100th floor of the World Trade Center. As the man’s body hit the ground with an explosive impact, he told his rapt audience, he grabbed the sleeve of the Police Comissioner and said “Bernie, thank God George Bush is our President!”

Wow- that has to win some kind of an award for shameless exploitation of a tragic death! Nice job Rudy. You sank to a new personal low, exploiting your own citizens- for George Bush? I mean, it’s not as if our God-given President has actually done much for New York or the rest of the world to make sure that tragic day is never repeated!

“Anti-Americanism has a long and complex history. But most observers agree that the Bush administration’s bellicose and unilateralist foreign policy has greatly enflamed smoldering animosities and even managed to turn the United States into a universal hate object. …” ~Professer Stephen Holmes

But I admit that this is a matter of opinion, and not everyone shares mine: namely that the world is a more dangerous place since Bush started the war in Iraq.

A second common theme of the night (that would have set the back of my teeth swimming if I had heard it) was the refrain, repeated several times, “We did not seek this war”.

Excuse me? Yes, Mr. Bush, actually, you did. Sorry- this one is not just my opinion.

After 9/11, a lot of people who are much smarter than I feel that the war in Afghanistan had to happen. Of course, it did not have to happen in the lousy, cheap, half-assed way that you have conducted it, but it does seem an inevitable outgrowth of 9/11. Leaving aside the whole thorny issue of pre-9/11 intelligence failures, the Afghan war, to some extent, came looking for us.

But Iraq? Mr. President, you begged for that war! We now know that you planned for that war from the day you took office. (Don’t you think, with all that time to prepare, you should have done a better job?) You were willing to traitorously expose your own CIA agent Valerie Palme to keep that war on track, and willing to lie to the American people and to the world to keep your dirty little dream alive.

No, George W. Bush- you OWN the war in Iraq! It’s yours: destroyed schools, open sewers, maimed soldiers, violent insurgents, dead babies and all- it has YOUR name on it! In fact. I am going to start referring to this little conflict as “the Bush War” or maybe “WW- W” from now on, because I want your name to be forever connected with what has happened there. So don’t you get your sycophants to stand up there and claim that you did not seek this war, because that dog won’t hunt. Remember the “Pottery Barn” rule Colin Powell talked to you about before the whole thing started: you break it, you own it!

Speaking of war, that brings me to the last little bit of fun the Republicans had at the country’s expense. Seems the big thing last night at Madison Square Garden was to get one of the little “Purple Heart bandaids” they were passing out. This is, of course, in mockery of one of the Purple Hearts John Kerry won in Vietnam, which many Republicans take glee in informing us was for a mere scratch. Apparently his combat decorations don’t count any more because he wasn’t wounded badly enough.

Badly enough for whom? They were apparently bad enough for whatever committee awarded Purple Hearts.

No one could claim that John Kerry was horribly wounded in Vietnam, and I admit I get tired of hearing Democrats go on about the Purple Hearts he won. I don’t think that the fact that he served (honorably, according to his service record) in Vietnam automatically makes him a great candidate for president, and I wish I could say to both candidates, “yeah yeah, Vietnam was 35 years ago. What about today? What about tomorrow?

But doesn’t it set a nasty prescedent to publicly mock the Purple Heart won by anyone? These awards are given for wounds earned in combat, by members of the beloved “troops” that the Republicans all claim to support so wildly. They are not a thing that anyone, particularly someone who did not serve in the military, has any business denigrating.

But the Republican machine has no shame, and they showed that last night with their little bandaid stunt. Did it ever occur to them that they were, in effect, announcing open season on all war wounds with this joke?

Here’s a question for you, Mr. President: how much blood does a person have to spill in order to be wounded enough to count with your crowd?

Does one need at least 10 stitches?
100?
A lost limb?

This is a very important and timely question, because to date there have already been nearly 7,000 wounded in the Bush War. Tell me, Mr. President, when they come home in a wheelchair, will they all be respected as real, patriotic Americans for their sacrifice- or are some of their wounds not good enough for you?

First your administration cut the soldiers pay, then their health benefits, their housing, death benefits and even combat training for those about to go to combat, for Christ’s sake! Now you are letting your supporters cut their medals right out from under them.

During the Democratic convention, while plenty of charges were leveled at you, NO one called you a draft-dodger or a deserter, although many people think you are both. John Kerry quickly and decisively denounced a 527 ad questioning your military service because the Democrats, for all their faults, decided that this subject should not be fair game. I expect they are beginning to regret that decision. They should have leveled their guns at you and fired with both barrels.

Well, what’s your answer, sir? The eyes of the nation are upon you, Mr. Bush. Our sons are fighting in this war because YOU sent them there. Is the quality of their wounds now fair game any time they speak their minds? Do they have to sign a loyalty oath to keep you from turning your attack dogs lose on them as well? Is their blood not red enough for you, that blood which is on your hands?

You need to pull the plug on this stupid stunt, and do it quickly and unambiguously, not the way you responded to the Swift Boat vet ads. Because this little “joke” is not about John Kerry: it is about every wounded service man and woman in America.

Isincerely hope all the troops, past and present, are watching the RNC this week , so they can see how much their service and sacrifice means to the Bush administration, and can revel in all the “support” they have from the Republicans. Tell you what: you guys can clap and put little signs on your cars all you like, but this week, a bandaid is worth a thousand words.