Listen to Bigfoot journalists like Peter Jennings and Tim Russert, and you'd think that one of the most pressing presidential issues this year is whether Gen. Wesley Clark should have immediately denounced his supporter, the gadfly filmmaker Michael Moore, for calling George W. Bush a "deserter" while campaigning for the general in New Hampshire. It's almost enough to give "chutzpah" a bad name.
In fact, the question whether George W. Bush pulled a fast one on the Texas Air National Guard-or had one pulled for him-to save him the ignominy of being termed a "deserter" is hardly the open and shut case that Jennings, Russert and virtually every journalist seems to assume it is.
This is an administration that is almost devoid (Powell being the exception) of people who were willing to risk their lives for this nation. It's time we started calling it on military issues.
This lack of service and bravery should lead to some hard policy questions:
1. Why has Bush cut veterans' benefits? 2. Why do we have soldiers' families on food stamps? 3. Why has not Bush attended any services for fallen U.S. soldiers? 4. Why did he think he had the moral authority to wear a flight suit and declare "mission accomplished" when lives were still at risk? 5. Why did he tell Iraqi insurgents to "bring it on," thus inviting more harm to American soldiers? 6. Why has the military occupation of Iraq involved so much corporate malfeasance by the presidents' friends? 7. Why have soldiers had to do without sufficient spare parts, food, and water when these same companies failed to provide support services as promised in their inflated contracts? 8. Why did the invasion of Iraq occur with fewer troops than the military said it needed to keep the peace and secure the resources of Iraq?
Bush has been bad for the military, bad for national security, bad for the future.
It's time we started demanding the truth and holding these draft-dodging cowards accountable.
