In a time of war

Ornicus has a great piece today on George Bush's desertion of his Texas Air National Guard service during the Vietnam War.

Just from what we know now, the question that needs answering is this: Why did Mr. Bush abandon his commitment to his country during wartime? Why did he blow off his valuable training and remove himself from flight status?

The question any serviceman should be asking is this: What if I were to treat my commitment to service just as Bush did? What if I trained to be a pilot and then refused to take a physical? And then failed to show up for any subsequent meetings of my unit? Dropped out of sight for seven months?

And then he ought to think about the big grin Bush wore along with that flight suit.

There's a certain irony to all of this. How often in the last two years have we heard things justified because we're "in a time of war"? We can't criticize the President or question the government. We shouldn't stage protests or object if the police decide to bust into a restaurant and interrogate patrons at gunpoint. Hollywood needs to shut up in general (unless you're a famous Republican) and, of course, tone down the Oscars. As for our civil liberties, well, we should willingly surrender those. Why? Because we're "in a time of war".

Yet here we have President Bush, the symbol of what we all should be during this time of war, who, while living in another time of war, not only did his darndest to avoid having to go to Vietnam, but then failed to live up to the obligation he willingly took upon himself to serve the state of Texas in their Air National Guard. In a time of war!

Bush may think he can excuse his dereliction of duty by sweeping it under the "youthful indescretion" rug with his possible drug use, known alcohol problems and other such "whoopsies", but he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. When he chose to skip his physical, rendering himself unable to continue flying, and then never bothered to show up for the rest of his serve, he showed himself to be a man without honour. In a time of war, neither he nor his aides (most of whom also avoided service during the Vietnam war themselves) have any place telling the American public how to be patriotic or how to behave.

Posted by thorswitch at May 10, 2003 02:15 AM | TrackBack