About George HW Bush

[cynatnite]

George HW Bush was a WWII pilot before he turned 19 years old. While flying, his plane was shot down. Despite the damage, he completed his mission. He was the last to parachute away and was injured in the process. He lost track of those that were with him on the plane. After he was rescued, he learned later that he was the only one to survive. Those he served with were killed after they were captured.

Bush publicly shamed David Duke and cost him the election for governor of Louisiana. Bush resigned his NRA membership after a letter from them maligning the ATF. I remember laughing about that.

I'll be honest, I called myself a republican at the time. I was active duty in the Army, too. Husband was as well and he was shipped off for Desert Storm which we both supported at the time.

Our memories of him are reflected differently than probably most anyone else's. We respected and liked him. Although, his last year or so in the WH had us scratching our heads over decisions he made. Somalia angered us because there was no exit strategy and the arrival was like a reality show. I knew it wouldn't go well.

Still, I look back and I remember him fondly. I feel a pang of sadness at his passing.

I don't have a problem with anyone who feels differently or even antipathy towards him. I think there is enough room and enough respect around here that we can be honest.

Still, I hope HW's war service and his public rebuke of David Duke is rubbed in tRump's face.

[guillaumeb]

1. What I wrote earlier:

George H. W. Bush has died.
It is appropriate to feel sympathy for the family's loss. And he was a President.

But in all of what will be endless recounting of his WW II service, it is good to remember the entire reality of the man.

First, while a candidate in 1980, he called supply side economic theory voodoo economics. But after he was picked by Reagan, or Reagan's handlers, for the job of Vice President, he supported the concept that he had called voodoo economics. And he said nothing when Reagan played the race card in his campaign.

So he was a political opportunist who supported something that he knew was a bad idea, but an idea that profited his family at the expense of the 99%.

And during the campaign, he committed treason by dealing with the Iranian Government to keep Americans hostage so Reagan could win.

And during his own campaign for President, one of his advisers, Lee Atwater, devised the Willie Horton ad, a shameful bit of racist hate that was a direct appeal to racist voters.

So to me, Bush Sr. was simply one more racist, lying, GOP rich man.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211497619

[underpants]

2. Gonna have to contend the first part.

Retired Navy Gunner Offers Different Account : Bush Story of War Incident Challenged

Chester Mierzejewski, who was the turret gunner in another plane, said in an interview that he has been bothered "for years" about Bush's version of the incident, haunted by the belief that Bush could have saved the two men in his plane, which crashed into the South Pacific in September, 1944.

'No Smoke'

However, Mierzejewski said in his account, which first appeared in Friday's New York Post, that "no smoke came out of his cockpit when he opened his canopy to bail out."

Mierzejewski contended that if Bush had attempted a water landing, the two men could have been saved, if they were still alive.

Mierzejewski said his next door neighbor, Larry Hermann, a lawyer, "had been after me for some time, saying: 'Why don't you give your version?' I kept saying no, no." He said he agreed to talk to the New York Post two months ago after Bush failed to answer a letter he sent him. Hart said Bush's office has no record of receiving such a letter.

"Personally, I have no problem with Bush," Mierzejewski said. "I'm not going to base my vote on one incident. I haven't made up my mind who I'm voting for."

Hermann, who denied in an interview that he was trying to hurt Bush politically, said Mierzejewski's was "a story that should be told. I respect the man."

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-08-13/news/mn-194_1_bush-spokesman

[Coventina]

3. I got "ignored" in another thread for bringing that up.

[underpants]

5. Okay.

[Coventina]

6. Some people refuse to accept he might not be the hero they want him to be.

Because, you know, he got the Distinguished Flying Cross, so that proves his version of the story.

[cynatnite]

7. That's just plain silly to put someone on ignore for this...

We have a tendency to lionize people after death and it won't be any different with HW even here by some folks. I like looking back on the things I liked about him, but I'm not going to ignore the stuff I didn't like either.

[cynatnite]

4. I've read about that...

I attribute the different accounts to fog of war. Both men remember it as they do and I'm not going to dispute either one.

[Jarqui]

8. I think the two top posts and Obama's remarks

cover a lot of my sincerely mixed feelings about him and his wife.

On a personal note:

My folks went to an event he was attending and they were kind of proud they were going to get to meet him. They were nice, conservative and elderly. He kind of snubbed them - quickly brushed them aside - when they were introduced which ticked me off. They were a little humiliated and didn't deserve it.

I was asked to work in a think tank for his admin and was torn, in part because he was a Republican and in part for some of the negative stuff posted above. But I felt it was my duty to try so I did. He responded or seemed swayed by our work which defied some Republican positions on free trade and I respected him for that. In our case, he was willing to listen to reason.

So there was good and bad to him. With his passing, my feelings about him will remain mixed. I'm certainly not delighted he's gone or anything like that. I lacked respect for his son and his administration far more. Just when I didn't think it would get any worse than 43, along comes Trump.

[cynatnite]

9. I think it's easy to forget sometimes that people are human...

and the least consistent creatures on the planet.

I'm with you about '43. When he passes, I can't see me having a kind word to say about him. That will be one time when I just keep my mouth shut. I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead, especially when they obviously have family that love them.

[Autumn]

10. I remember how delighted he was to sign the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Yes I used the word delighted, because he really was, that obviously meant a lot to him. He talked of tearing down walls.