Herbert: Stand up & say it is wrong to reap pol. gain defacing sacrifice

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Where Is The Shame?
By BOB HERBERT

Published: August 27, 2004

Max Cleland, minus the three limbs he lost in Vietnam, showed up in his wheelchair outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Wednesday to suggest that the president take the simple and decent step of condemning the slime that is being spread by Bush supporters against the war record of John Kerry.

He didn't get very far. The president was busy vacationing and had neither the time nor the inclination to meet with Mr. Cleland, a former U.S. senator who was himself the target of vicious, unconscionable attacks by the G.O.P. slime machine when he ran for re-election in Georgia in 2002....(Senator Cleland said later at a press conference): "Keep in mind, this president has gone after three Vietnam veterans in four years. That's got to stop."...

***

Mr. Bush himself, the nation's commander in chief and the biggest hawk of all....revels in the accouterments of combat. The story was somewhat different when he was 22 years old and eligible for combat himself. He managed to get into the cushy confines of the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968 - a year in which more than a half-million American troops were in the war zone and more than 14,000 were killed.

The story gets murky after that. We know the future president breezed off at some point to work on a political campaign in Alabama, skipped a required flight physical in 1972 and was suspended from flying. He supported the war in Vietnam but was never in any danger of being sent there....

(Herbert points out that Cheney, Ashcroft and Wolfowitz also avoided service in Vietnam, and writes: "I would like to see at least some of these men, in keeping with their positions as leaders of a great nation, stand up and say it is wrong - just wrong - to try and reap a cheap political gain by defacing the sacrifices of individuals like John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland, who put themselves in mortal danger in the service of their country.")


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/opinion/27herbert.html?hp

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Just goes to show how much Bu$h & Co

really don't give a damn about our Veterans.

Like many of the Vets they suckered into participating in the SBV fiasco, they will use, abuse and slime, each and everyone of them for their own political gain.