Getting On With Life
A few days ago, our president responded to the Sheehanigans going on in Crawford by reminding the world that he needs to “get on with [his] life.” It sounds like something one would say to the devastated partner clinging to hope that their defunct relationship might be resurrected. In a way I find the Sheehan/Bush/U.S. situation a lot like a failed relationship.
Relationships require a degree of trust to remain in working order. Sheehan ultimately pledged her trust in the U.S. military and its commander in chief by allowing her son to go to war, regardless of how he felt about it. Technically, if she felt so strong about her son not going, she could have given him the old hobbling treatment ala Kathy Bates circa “Misery”. Because she did not join the Bates family practice, she was silently consenting to the decisions her son’s superiors made. She trusted that theirs would be sound ones and that the only way her son would be put in harm’s way, let alone in a situation that he might lose his life, would be if the safety of American citizens or residents was put in jeopardy.
When I say jeopardy, I mean it in the sense of physical harm. Monetary harm is something that President Bush has excelled in propagating lately, but it is not something that should be a case for war. Should is the operative word there because unfortunately, Major General Smedley’s “War Is a Racket” points out that war is indeed, a racket. “It always has been.” Considering Smedley waged them himself (and was decorated highly because of them), his is an opinion that one must afford a certain amount of weight.
With the idea that there is no war without want of profit in mind, we understand that in spite of everything President Bush told us leading up to and throughout the course of the war, Casey Sheehan died for the bottom line. That bottom line is the same one that killed Arthur William Bailey, Jr. Bailey, like our president, was born in New Haven, Connecticut and was less than three years younger than Bush. About a year before Bailey died, all of New Haven celebrated Bush’s enlistment in the Texas Air National Guard (which in acronymic terms was known as T.A.N.G.. You make the call as to how ironic that is). Bailey’s tour in Vietnam lasted less than four months before he was killed in an ambush. Meanwhile, T.A.N.G. had this to say about the now veteran Bush:
"George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed.... As far as kicks are concerned, Lt. Bush gets his from the roaring afterburner of the F-102."
That same F-102 he used to “shuttle” tropical plants from Florida to Texas for an importer. Again, I leave the conjecture entirely up to you readers.
So while American soldiers were dying in the tropical plants of Vietnam, Bush was transporting the tropical plants of Florida. That connection is the only possible one that would make Bush’s statement thirty plus years later of “I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." make any amount of sense. Bush had the choice to go to war and he chose T.A.N.G.
Casey Sheehan had a choice as well. Unlike Bush, he did not dodge a draft and instead enlisted without conscription. When he did, he (like his mother) placed his trust in his commanding officers. A trust that is sworn to when he signs his contract. A contract that is only valid if adhered to. When Bush and company started clamoring faster than an auctioneer on some good tropical plant about the need for a war, Sheehan did not run. Instead, he told his mother that it was his duty to go and serve. If only his duty had been to run tropical plants between states, Cindy Sheehan would be back home in Vacaville.
Instead, Casey re-enlisted, went to Iraq, then onto Sadr city where he would volunteer for a rescue mission during which he and several other soldiers would be killed. It’s not like she suddenly became active and vocal in her opposition to the war in Iraq. She always had been, but it was that series of events set in motion Cindy’s grief driven journey.
Americans were not in jeopardy before we went into Iraq in 2003, but since then they have been. With almost 1,900 soldiers dead in a war that has no purpose other than the bottom line, Bush reminds us that he must “get on with [his] life.” Thanks to our president, Casey can’t and that’s why Cindy is.
Relationships require a degree of trust to remain in working order. Sheehan ultimately pledged her trust in the U.S. military and its commander in chief by allowing her son to go to war, regardless of how he felt about it. Technically, if she felt so strong about her son not going, she could have given him the old hobbling treatment ala Kathy Bates circa “Misery”. Because she did not join the Bates family practice, she was silently consenting to the decisions her son’s superiors made. She trusted that theirs would be sound ones and that the only way her son would be put in harm’s way, let alone in a situation that he might lose his life, would be if the safety of American citizens or residents was put in jeopardy.
When I say jeopardy, I mean it in the sense of physical harm. Monetary harm is something that President Bush has excelled in propagating lately, but it is not something that should be a case for war. Should is the operative word there because unfortunately, Major General Smedley’s “War Is a Racket” points out that war is indeed, a racket. “It always has been.” Considering Smedley waged them himself (and was decorated highly because of them), his is an opinion that one must afford a certain amount of weight.
With the idea that there is no war without want of profit in mind, we understand that in spite of everything President Bush told us leading up to and throughout the course of the war, Casey Sheehan died for the bottom line. That bottom line is the same one that killed Arthur William Bailey, Jr. Bailey, like our president, was born in New Haven, Connecticut and was less than three years younger than Bush. About a year before Bailey died, all of New Haven celebrated Bush’s enlistment in the Texas Air National Guard (which in acronymic terms was known as T.A.N.G.. You make the call as to how ironic that is). Bailey’s tour in Vietnam lasted less than four months before he was killed in an ambush. Meanwhile, T.A.N.G. had this to say about the now veteran Bush:
"George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed.... As far as kicks are concerned, Lt. Bush gets his from the roaring afterburner of the F-102."
That same F-102 he used to “shuttle” tropical plants from Florida to Texas for an importer. Again, I leave the conjecture entirely up to you readers.
So while American soldiers were dying in the tropical plants of Vietnam, Bush was transporting the tropical plants of Florida. That connection is the only possible one that would make Bush’s statement thirty plus years later of “I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." make any amount of sense. Bush had the choice to go to war and he chose T.A.N.G.
Casey Sheehan had a choice as well. Unlike Bush, he did not dodge a draft and instead enlisted without conscription. When he did, he (like his mother) placed his trust in his commanding officers. A trust that is sworn to when he signs his contract. A contract that is only valid if adhered to. When Bush and company started clamoring faster than an auctioneer on some good tropical plant about the need for a war, Sheehan did not run. Instead, he told his mother that it was his duty to go and serve. If only his duty had been to run tropical plants between states, Cindy Sheehan would be back home in Vacaville.
Instead, Casey re-enlisted, went to Iraq, then onto Sadr city where he would volunteer for a rescue mission during which he and several other soldiers would be killed. It’s not like she suddenly became active and vocal in her opposition to the war in Iraq. She always had been, but it was that series of events set in motion Cindy’s grief driven journey.
Americans were not in jeopardy before we went into Iraq in 2003, but since then they have been. With almost 1,900 soldiers dead in a war that has no purpose other than the bottom line, Bush reminds us that he must “get on with [his] life.” Thanks to our president, Casey can’t and that’s why Cindy is.
We are all so very sorry...
2 Comments:
nicely written, pally boy.
thanks, roomy mate
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