Service

I just finished reading another Op-Ed article where the author said that if Bush wants war so badly, he should send his own kids. She also implied that since he never fought in a war, he is not qualified to run this one.

I have a couple of problems with this attitude. One is that, whether Bush got help to get into the guard or not, he served in the military. He was a jet fighter pilot. That is something that most people can't do. His daddy wasn't up there in the jet with him, chances are you couldn't do it and I don't think I could do it. My big question is why was it okay for Bill Clinton to manipulate the system to avoid service altogether, but not okay for Bush to pull strings to serve in the guard? And how are we to trust Hillary or Obama to lead us in the future if they never served in the military?

Actually, based on the often heard attitude from the left that only the poor, dumb kids join the military; don't you want someone who is smart enough to get OUT of going to war to be president?

The logical end of this line of argument is that no Senator, Congressperson, Cabinet member, President, Vice-president or even newspaper columnist should be allowed to express an opinion or cast a vote regarding war unless they served in actual combat or have a child in combat. I actually have no problem with that, but I think it's going to be a problem for most people in politics right now. How do you like the idea of the country being led by a bunch of guys like me?

Of course I understand that there would be no war if it weren't for George Bush and the evil, capitalist right-wing neo-cons. I realize that Bush is responsible for all the bad things in the world, or at least America is. Or our way of life is, or something like that...

And Bush lied, RIGHT? So if it weren't for George Bush, we wouldn't need a military, and all those poor, dumb kids wouldn't be preyed upon by lying, manipulating recruiters. (We support the troops, just not the recruiters, even though they are troops too...)

How about this: Fanatics around the world hate us. Some would like to kill Americans, and they don't care if you are military or civilian, liberal or conservative. We need a military to protect us. Join or don't join, I don't care. Just don't rationalize the reason you didn't join by denigrating my reasons for joining. I wasn't poor and I'm not stupid.

Understand that if it's okay for you not to join, and you don't want your kids to join, then it's okay for Bush too. You can't have it both ways. And even people who didn't serve, or have kids who aren't serving, are allowed to have an opinion on the war, including Bush. Every right you have applies to all other Americans.

If you are going to take the right to form opinions about the war away from Bush, because his kids aren't over there; then you have to take that right away from yourself if your kids aren't over there. None of us wants to live like that. That wouldn't be the country that I have served to protect for 19 years.