Monday, May 29, 2006

Today all Chickenhawks should hide in shame

Darksyde wrote this inspiring article over on DailyKos called "Requiem for a Nightmare":

Illustration provided by Karen Wehrstein


"Tomorrow is the day we honor the fallen American heroes of so many wars. To avoid staining our national day of mourning, I felt it more appropriate to dedicate this post at this time to a very different kind of American. They may be clueless neocons, erroneous White House talking heads, or smear artists and their self-appointed town criers. But what they all have in common is that each one bravely ducked when called and later took part directly or indirectly in assaulting the reputation of those who stood in harm's way. They are known, affectionately, as Chicken-hawks:

* President George W. Bush - served four years of a six years Nat'l Guard commitment, some say after daddy's friends pulled some strings to keep him out of Vietnam. The circumstances of his early separation from state-side service are still controversial (details)
* Karl Rove, occasional Deputy Chief of Staff and alleged full time smear artist, escaped the draft and did not serve
* VP Dick Cheney - several deferments, by marriage and timely fatherhood
* Former VP Chief of Staff I. Lewis Scooter Libby - did not serve
* Secretary of State and former NSA Condaleeza Rice - did not serve
* Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - did not serve.
* Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - did not serve.
* Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay - did not serve
* House Majority Whip Roy Blunt - did not serve
* Majority Whip Mitch McConnell - did not serve
* Rick Santorum, third ranking Republican in the Senate - did not serve.
* Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott - did not serve."

Read the rest of this article here at DailyKos.com

Everyone listed above was of age during the Viet Nam era while the draft was in effect, but managed to find ways to avoid serving their country at war. And you should keep in mind on the day of the August 8th primary that another high profile legislator also avoided lawful service in our armed forces (From an article at My Left Nutmeg"):

"Joseph I. Lieberman, 61 Received student deferments from 1961 through 1967 while at Yale and Yale Law School. After finishing law school, received a parental deferment with his wife pregnant."

2 comments:

CT Bob said...

Do you honestly think we even need to check on that?

I dunno...but if any of them WERE active duty during Viet Nam, I'd expect they'd be crowing about it from dawn to dusk; even if they weren't in active combat and had a safe, cushy assignment in the rear eschelons.

Maybe these fellows are embarrassed to make a big deal about their valiant and honorable service under fire in combat; yeah, that must be it.

Neh.

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