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A Sober Call for President Bush to Serve in Iraq
... along with Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Condi Rice
... and if they go, I go too!
by Jeff Koopersmith
April 14, 2006—PALM BEACH (apj.us)—I am reminded of the battle for the 1952 Republican nomination for president between Dwight Eisenhower and Robert Taft. General Eisenhower announced at that time that he would personally go to Korea and lead an end that miserable fracas.
There has been no such foolishness from George W. Bush, a trusted and talented fighter pilot who should be pressed by the American population, both supporters and detractors, to promise the same.
After all, the President seems eager to stick out the war in Iraq, despite the fact that the death toll of Americans and Iraqis increases each day, continuing to destroy his already mottled legacy—yet we do not see him truly stepping up to his much-flaunted role as Commander-in-Chief.
I ask, “Where’s the beef?”
Bush, relying on his insincere, self-laudatory history in the Texas National Guard, and with the same blood running in his veins that produced his father—another war hero—should have absolutely no dilemma in deciding to lead our young boys and girls into battle.
In addition, our President is young, strong enough to clear tons of brush from his ranch in Texas, and has little to do domestically. His efforts on education, the environment, health care, Medicaid and Medicare have all been dismal failures. His work toward rebuilding much of the coastal South after two hurricanes decimated its infrastructure is a laughing stock among other industrial nations. His efforts to control illegal and legal immigration have failed. His tax policies have failed all but the wealthiest of us. He has succeeded almost single-handedly in making us a laughingstock among nations.
Res ipsa loquitur: The President can serve us best by putting his own life on the line for the people who trusted and voted for him. I am sure Bush’s mother and wife will support him wholeheartedly, much as they claim to support the mothers and wives of those he had sent to their deaths in Iraq.
“Captain Don” Rumsfeld is also more than fit enough to lead our troops. He attended Princeton University on academic and ROTC scholarships (you paid for his education), served in the US Navy (1954-57) as a pilot and flight instructor. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his naval service until 1975. He transferred to the Standby Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense during the Ford Administration in 1975 and to the Retired Reserve with the rank of Captain in 1989.
With Rummy’s flying talents, he, if the President so chooses, could be Mr. Bush’s wing man and do a fine job of it.
Now we turn to the Vice President, and the man most likely to eventually be proven the iniquitous puppetmaster who engineered the overall destruction of Middle East security and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children—and that doesn't include our own troops or those of our allies imprudent enough, or should I say greedy or frightened enough, to have gone along.
Republicans are quick to defend Mr. Cheney and his wife, whose own history is marked by a reputation nearly equal to his for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. His fellows are quick to defend him because he, personally, is the premier corporate fundraiser for the Republican National Committee. The adage, “It takes one to know one” (or “the fox smells his own hole”) is not wasted on this man.
Few would disagree that that our Vice President deserves most to lead his own unit into the kind of urban guerilla warfare that only the most dangerous regions of Iraq afford. While Mr. Cheney does have a heart condition that might exclude him in a draft, he is quick to point out that America has an “all-volunteer” army, which is tantamount to saying we had an all-volunteer African slave force prior to 1864. That aside, there is no reason why the Vice President should not put his body where his mouth is—and I will certainly be more than willing to cart his defibrillator for him as he leads us into battle against what he calls a few “dustups” in Baghdad.
No single American could possibly gain more much-needed humbleness and wisdom from such a brave move as would Mr. Cheney.
Finally, we turn to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has managed single-handedly to engineer Colin Powell’s demise, the muddled result of which being that we find ourselves mired in Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, all nations in conflict in Africa, Iraq—and of course her idiot roadmap for the Israelis and the Palestinians, who have just elected a gang of murderers to lead that territory against Israel in an ever-spiraling vortex of blood staining the desert floor.
Ms. Rice is certainly not prepared to fight in Iraq. However, one need only read the ten-thousand-word puff piece about her piano playing in, God help us, the New York Times last week to realize that she could easily buoy and simultaneously bore our troops to death traveling through the nastiest battlegrounds of Fallujah.
That leaves you and me.
I have already volunteered to accompany the Vice President as defib toter—and I seriously make the pledge—if he goes, I go (if he’ll have me).
Then there is you.
Will you join me in pledging to join Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Ms. Rice and me in Iraq to prove what the Administration is doing is the right thing, the American thing to do?
If so, simply sign up by clicking below: please include your name or pseudonym, your age, sex, city and state as well as your e-mail address to prove to the President we’re behind him.
And lest you hawkish members of Congress—on both sides of the aisle—think you can ignore this, don’t. We know you read this column and we expect you help from the Bush brigade in the shortest possible time.
JEFF KOOPERSMITH is a political consultant, opinion research authority, policy analyst, and self-described "renegade lobbyist."
To join Jeff, send your particulars to joinbush@koopersmith.com
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