An open letter to the Bush twins

[rullery]

Dear Barbara and Jenna,

First let me offer congratulations on your recent college graduations. I understand that you both are planning to appear with your Daddy on the campaign trail. But I have been wondering why we have not heard about your plans to join the military services?

Now that you are college graduates, you could apply for Officers Candidate School and earn commissions as officers. That way you would not have to associate too much with the enlisted men and women. Many young people do not have the advantages that you enjoy, and the only way they can afford to go to college is to enlist in one of the military services and earn college tuition. Forty years ago that is what I did. People like Jessica Lynch joined the Army so that they would be able to go to college.

When your dear Daddy decided to go to war against Iraq, based on faulty information that Saddam Hussein had WMD that he was planning to use against us, many young people were sent into harm's way to fight your Daddy's war. So far nearly 1000 of our military have died in Iraq, and thousands of others, like Jessica Lynch, have been maimed.

Some people claim that your Daddy is not much concerned about this, because the people being sent to Iraq to fight the war are not of his social class. Indeed we hear that he has yet to attend the funeral of even one of the brave men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq. It is even claimed that your Daddy used political influence to gain a spot in the Texas Air National Guard in order to avoid going to war in Vietnam.

Now your Daddy is running for President against John Kerry, who not only went to Vietnam to fight, but volunteered for some of the most dangerous duty there. Don't you think that the best way you young ladies could help your Daddy, to prove that the Bush family are not all cowards, would be to join the military yourselves? Chances are the Secret Service would keep you both safe from really dangerous duty, unlike ordinary soldiers. Still you would gain approval from all Americans for showing that the Bush daughters are brave enough to serve in the military during the Iraq War.

So I call on you, Barbara and Jenna, to enlist now, and maybe announce this at the Republican National Convention this week! Good luck to both of you young ladies.

Sincerely yours,

R. Ullery

[MikeG]

1. B & J's expected answer: Eww. The military is so grosss!!

[Julien Sorel]

2. Based on a recent picture I saw of them,

they might have a problem passing the physical. They looked a little ... well fed, shall we say.

Doesn't the military have mandatory drug testing? Given their family history, and drug abuse does have a genetic component, they might have a problem with that, as well.

[rullery]

3. Basic training will shape them up!

As all who have served in the armed services know, the first few weeks of basic training will take off fat and build up muscle, and instill some mental toughness and discipline. I really think it should be manditory for all of our young people to go through such a regimin. However drug use could indeed be a stopper.

[GOPAgainstGW]

4. I Got A Better Idea How to Shape Those Two UP!!!! LOL

[DarbyUSMC]

5. Amen, that was a great letter. But "not for nothin' ", the comment about

them being too well fed is one of the reasons we have so many young girls with eating disorders. Both of the Bush girls look like healthy girls their age generally look. If they looked like Twiggy surely someone would comment on their concentration on their physical appearance rather than on the important things in life. These girls had nothing to say about who they have for a father. They've graduated from college, something I wish I had done. They've raised a little hell, flirted with the press, and played games getting away from the eyes of the secret service. What would any of us do were our fathers running for president? Probably campaign for him. I doubt his daughters see him as the public sees him. Even Nixon's family stood by him when he resigned. IMO we have ample ammunition against Bush to last past the election without bringing Laura or the daughters into it. If people only vote for John Kerry because they want Bush out the door then all John has to do is wait till the right moment when Bush says the wrong thing, the wrong way during the debates and then nail him to the wall. That should garner him the votes he needs from the undecideds.

It was discussed the other day that Kerry didn't come off very well on the Daily Show. That wasn't his fault. The format was comedy and it didn't leave much time for serious talk. I'd like to see him sit down with Charlie Rose if he hasn't already done that. A one on one with no commercial interruptions. Charlie lets people talk and doesn't say more than the guest, as so many interviewers do.

[rullery]

6. Barbara and Jenna belong to a privileged class.

Thanks for your input, Darby. I certainly did not mean to ridicule the twins. They have successfully completed college and earned their degrees, and I wish them well. I do honestly believe that it would be to their benefit to spend some time in the military though. It is a maturing experience. Yet I doubt that these young ladies would even consider it.

In my letter I meant to point out that the twins enjoy some privileges that many others do not. It is mostly young people from less affluent families who enlist in the military, some to earn tuition benefits, and others because the military offers better jobs than they can get as civilians.

President Bush seems to have no qualms about sending these young people to bleed and die in Iraq. After all, they do not come from any of the families in his own social circle. Perhaps he even considers their lives to be expendable. It ties in with his own experience as a young man, when he did not have to go to Vietnam. Others had to go and serve in his place, because he is a Bush.

Kerry also comes from a privileged background. Yet he did not take advantage of this. He showed his character by volunteering for a very dangerous assignment in Vietnam. For Bush and his gang of draft-dodging cowards to attempt to belittle Kerry's heroic service to his country through their surrogates is truly beneath contempt.

I hope that people will wake up to these facts. My open letter to the Bush twins is an effort in this direction. Again, I do not mean to criticize them, for they did not get to pick their parents.

[LunaC]

7. Priceless!

And nominated for the home page. Very nicely done!