[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Where Is The Shame?

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Where Is The Shame?

August 27, 2004
 By BOB HERBERT 



 

Max Cleland, minus the three limbs he lost in Vietnam,
showed up in his wheelchair outside President Bush's ranch
in Crawford, Tex., on Wednesday to suggest that the
president take the simple and decent step of condemning the
slime that is being spread by Bush supporters against the
war record of John Kerry. 

He didn't get very far. The president was busy vacationing
and had neither the time nor the inclination to meet with
Mr. Cleland, a former U.S. senator who was himself the
target of vicious, unconscionable attacks by the G.O.P.
slime machine when he ran for re-election in Georgia in
2002. 

Later, at a press conference under the hot Crawford sun,
Mr. Cleland told reporters: "The question is, where is
George Bush's honor? Where is his shame?" 

Mr. Cleland reminded reporters of the scurrilous attacks by
Bush forces against Senator John McCain in the Republican
presidential primary in 2000 and said: "Keep in mind, this
president has gone after three Vietnam veterans in four
years. That's got to stop." 

In what is surely the most important election of the last
half-century, we seem trapped in the politics of the
madhouse. What is incredible is that these attacks on men
who served not just honorably, but heroically, are coming
from a hawkish party that is controlled by an astonishing
number of men who sprinted as far from the front lines as
they could when they were of fighting age and their country
was at war. 

Among them: 

Mr. Bush himself, the nation's commander in chief and the
biggest hawk of all. He revels in the accouterments of
combat. The story was somewhat different when he was 22
years old and eligible for combat himself. He managed to
get into the cushy confines of the Texas Air National Guard
at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968 - a year in which
more than a half-million American troops were in the war
zone and more than 14,000 were killed. 

The story gets murky after that. We know the future
president breezed off at some point to work on a political
campaign in Alabama, skipped a required flight physical in
1972 and was suspended from flying. He supported the war in
Vietnam but was never in any danger of being sent there. 

Vice President Dick Cheney, another fierce administration
hawk. Mr. Cheney asked for and received five deferments
when he was eligible for the draft. He told senators at a
confirmation hearing in 1989, "I had other priorities in
the 60's than military service." Many draft-age Americans
had similar priorities - getting an education, getting
married and starting a family. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is reported to have
said, "I would have served, if asked." But with the war
raging in Vietnam, he received six student deferments and
an "occupational deferment" based on the essential nature
of a civilian job at Southwest Missouri State University -
teaching business law to undergraduates. 

Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary and a
fanatical hawk on Iraq. He was not fanatical about Vietnam
and escaped the draft with student deferments. 

There are many others. 

I would like to see at least some
of these men, in keeping with their positions as leaders of
a great nation, stand up and say it is wrong - just wrong -
to try and reap a cheap political gain by defacing the
sacrifices of individuals like John Kerry, John McCain and
Max Cleland, who put themselves in mortal danger in the
service of their country. 

It's one thing to decline to serve. It's quite another to
throw mud at those who did serve - or to remain silent as
allies hurl the mud. 

I've interviewed several soldiers and marines who have
suffered grave wounds in Iraq, including the loss of limbs.
A permanent place of honor should be reserved for them in
the pantheon of American heroes. The idea that someone some
years from now may trash their service for political gain
is beyond disgusting. 

George W. Bush ought to call off his dogs. The one thing we
ought to be able to do in this hyperpoliticized era is
rally in a bipartisan way behind those who have been
willing to fight our wars. 

The privileged classes no longer feel an obligation to put
their lives - or their children's lives - on the line in
defense of the nation. The very least they could do is
insist that those who have put themselves in harm's way be
treated with respect. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/opinion/27herbert.html?ex=1094635011&ei=1&en=13b9d7a851805a17


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