Sunday, May 18, 2008
Bush's great war sacrifice? He gave up golf
Dan Radmacher
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From the RoundTable blog
About 170 members of the Virginia National Guard from Roanoke and South Boston returned home last week from a 10-month tour in Iraq.
These men and women -- and their families -- know better than most the sacrifices required by this five-year-old war.
They missed 10 months of their lives. Christmas. Birthdays. Spc. Jermane Royal wasn't sure his 2-year-old daughter would even recognize him. (She did.)
These citizen soldiers took time away from jobs and careers as well as families. Their sacrifice was immense.
The highest sacrifice came from Staff Sgt. Jesse Ault of Dublin, who was killed in action on April 9. Some of his family members attended the welcome-home ceremony for the unit.
They know sacrifice.
President Bush recently revealed the sacrifice he's made for the war: He gave up golf back in 2003.
In an interview with Politico and Yahoo, Bush said, "I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."
Solidarity. Sacrifice. Golf. Does this man have a clue?
"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said.
Oh, sure. Much better to see the commander in chief clearing brush on one of his many vacations. Or biking with Lance Armstrong. Or turning the hunt for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction into a lame joke, as he did at a Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in 2004.
That's solidarity.
If Bush wanted to show his solidarity with the troops he's sending into harm's way, he could have started by ensuring there were enough soldiers to do the job to begin with. He could have made sure there was an adequate postwar plan in place to secure Iraq after Saddam fell.
If he wanted to show his solidarity with the troops, he could have asked the nation to shoulder the sacrifices necessary during such a prolonged engagement. Instead, he's charging the enormous costs of the war to the children and grandchildren of us all, including the men and women fighting it.
If he wanted to show his solidarity with the troops, he could support Sen. James Webb's proposal to enhance the GI Bill rather than threatening a veto because adequate college benefits might encourage soldiers to take their discharges and run.
If he wanted to show his solidarity with the troops, he would have canned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- he of "You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you want" infamy -- before Republicans were thrashed in Congress in the '06 elections.
If he wanted to show his compassion for "some mom whose son may have recently died," he wouldn't treat the return of fallen soldiers as an embarrassing secret to be hidden away, preferably never to pierce the nation's conscience.
As commander in chief, Bush could show solidarity with the troops by investigating whether the Pentagon is purposefully diagnosing soldiers emotionally strained by repeated tours of duty with pre-existing personality disorders to get out of paying for medical and psychiatric care.
He could help restore the honor and dignity of the American soldier by making it crystal clear that torture, degrading treatment and abuse of prisoners is not allowed or condoned by the U.S. military. To do that, he would need to disown and disavow the many legalistic justifications for such behavior that have surfaced from his administration.
Of course, it is far too late for Bush to have shown this nation's soldiers the highest honor and respect by not sending them into this unnecessary and counterproductive war in the first place.
There are many ways to recognize and honor the sacrifice made by the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. There are ways Bush could have shown that he recognizes the gravity and magnitude of the courage and sacrifice he has asked of hundreds of thousands of troops.
Swearing off golf is not one of them.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
