After 9/11, Mr. Bush had a choice: he could deal with real threats, or he could play Rambo. He chose Rambo.
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One of the wonders of recent American politics has been the ability of Mr. Bush and his supporters to wrap their partisanship in the flag. Through innuendo and direct attacks by surrogates, men who assiduously avoided service in Vietnam, like Dick Cheney (five deferments), John Ashcroft (seven deferments) and George Bush (a comfy spot in the National Guard, and a mysterious gap in his records), have questioned the patriotism of men who risked their lives and suffered for their country: John McCain, Max Cleland and now John Kerry.
How have they been able to get away with it? The answer is that we have been living in what Roger Ebert calls "an age of Rambo patriotism." As the carnage and moral ambiguities of Vietnam faded from memory, many started to believe in the comforting clichés of action movies, in which the tough-talking hero is always virtuous and the hand-wringing types who see complexities and urge the hero to think before acting are always wrong, if not villains.
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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1 comment:
Ah, the obvious...
First, My. Kerry could say that the test of American patriotism should not be based on war: it is time for that to pass. How can we achieve a lasting peace when we it is our careers as soldiers which will play for us or against us.
No, I think Mr. Kerry should worry about Americans who serve: not just in military, but in all the other public places where the GOP will denigrate in general and attack quite personally.
Why not stand up for Max Cleland, who surely bears more scars, or even John McCain? Taking a page from Emerson and Thoreau, why are you out there, John? Why are you not in here? If modesty prevents you, John McCain, from defending yourself, defend your comrades in arms, your band of brothers.
Shall ever man and every woman have their service records dirtied because George Bush so desperately wants to rule this country, bleed her for these 4 more years and what will that legacy be? He would hand it off to someone no less irresponsible, privileged.
Tell him no. Tell him Americans who are honored shall not be subject to blackmail and revisionism.
He would sulley the grand service of the National Guard where he hid out his time, and now he would sulley the service of men and women, called, followed in trust, and so many were mislead.
Do not let fall your support for the so many real and true heroes, far beyond my own service, who see their own metals, so terribly earned, threatened.
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