Ripping Into the Chicken Hawks Again

This excellent item from McCall's reinforces what I and many others have been saying: the constant attacks on combat veterans by conservative Republican draft dodgers or non-combat veterans is disgusting and offensive in the extreme. One disgusted veteran wrote to McCall's columnist Paul Carpenter and had this to say. Excerpts:

''I ask that all these so-called patriots and war hawks who attack war veterans like John Murtha and John McCain please state their military experience and qualifications,'' Halasovski wrote. ''Putting a magnetic ribbon on the car that says 'Support Our Troops' does not mean anything to me. If you really want to support the troops, enlist. Then talk to me about war.''

I was so impressed by Halasovski's piquancy that I contacted him later in the week.''People who have been in wars are very cautious about getting into wars,'' he told me. ''He [President Bush] wasn't in combat, [Vice President Dick] Cheney wasn't in combat, [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld wasn't in combat.''

''People have pounded on [John] McCain and John Kerry,'' Halasovski said, referring to two other politicians viciously attacked by Bush administration supporters for criticizing Iraq policies. Like Murtha, McCain and Kerry were willing to serve in Vietnam while the chicken hawks cowered at home.

I asked Halasovski about his position on Iraq. ''I think it's the wrong thing,'' he said. ''I think it's Vietnam all over again. When they say cut and run, I think we should have cut and run in 1966. It would have saved 55,000 lives."

Halasovski noted that the key figures of the Bush administration never experienced it, but ''all those guys want to rush into it'' — that is, they want to rush other people into it. He and I agreed that action in Afghanistan was justified, but the chicken hawks lied America into a war in Iraq to benefit Haliburton and the Bush family's dear pals — the corrupt and despotic royal family that runs Saudi Arabia. (Where did most 9/11 terrorists and financing come from? Why, it was Saudi Arabia, Iraq's chief economic rival.)

Now we have the Bush administration's admirers on a crusade to destroy the reputation of any critics, including a genuine patriot like Murtha. It's an administration headed by someone who dodged service in Vietnam by pretending to serve in the National Guard, and whose veep had a politically powerful daddy wangle him a deferment. His chief adviser, Karl Rove, also got a deferment, and his chief cheerleader, Rush Limbaugh, also had a politically powerful daddy get him one — based on a big pimple on his fanny.

As I've often said, where do these right wing bastards get the g-d damned nerve to question the commitment and patriotism of guys like Murtha? It's truly one of the most astonishing phenomena in American political history: the brave being attacked by the cowards for not being brave.

Enough. By God, enough already!