Bush asks for sacrifice he doesn't ask of himself

This is a letter to the editor published in the local paper today. I'm pasting it below for you guys to read, and for our resident dum dum pops to respond to. And I'm also going to ask that you not just dismiss this letter to the editor as liberal ad-hominem filled garbage. There are some serious points that are well made in this article.

Bush asks for sacrifice he doesn't ask of himself

To the editor:

One would think that the president of the United States holds the most stressful job ever. Isn't it wonderful that our pompous president is in such excellent condition healthwise? And why not? His eligible daughters aren't in Iraq protecting our country like so many others, more than 1,800 who have given their lives for a war that he started.

With a smirk on his face, he says, "We will stay the course." Who is "we?" Not him or his family. Heck no. He's on a month's vacation. If he's so gung-ho about this war, show us some guts and send your kids to the front lines. This war is not being won; the insurgents just keep on coming. And terrorism has gotten much worse since he began this senseless war.

Then, too, he has no worry about health insurance. Boy, is he covered, not like the millions who have none. And what about the poor, the homeless and those who barely eke out a living? It's not his problem. Why worry? Go on vacation. Imagine a month's vacation. No wonder he's in such good condition. And while he's gone, who's minding the store? The other pompous snake?

I would think that if Dubya likes Texas so much, he should stay there and let one who has the total concern of our nation and its people take his place. In history, I believe this president will be judged the worst ever.

[mmbt0ne]

I'm declaring this thread dead before it even gets started. This is about to get ugly.

[jaxmike]

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This is a letter to the editor published in the local paper today. I'm pasting it below for you guys to read, and for our resident dum dum pops to respond to. And I'm also going to ask that you not just dismiss this letter to the editor as liberal ad-hominem filled garbage. There are some serious points that are well made in this article.

Bush asks for sacrifice he doesn't ask of himself

To the editor:

One would think that the president of the United States holds the most stressful job ever. Isn't it wonderful that our pompous president is in such excellent condition healthwise? And why not? His eligible daughters aren't in Iraq protecting our country like so many others, more than 1,800 who have given their lives for a war that he started.

With a smirk on his face, he says, "We will stay the course." Who is "we?" Not him or his family. Heck no. He's on a month's vacation. If he's so gung-ho about this war, show us some guts and send your kids to the front lines. This war is not being won; the insurgents just keep on coming. And terrorism has gotten much worse since he began this senseless war.

Then, too, he has no worry about health insurance. Boy, is he covered, not like the millions who have none. And what about the poor, the homeless and those who barely eke out a living? It's not his problem. Why worry? Go on vacation. Imagine a month's vacation. No wonder he's in such good condition. And while he's gone, who's minding the store? The other pompous snake?

I would think that if Dubya likes Texas so much, he should stay there and let one who has the total concern of our nation and its people take his place. In history, I believe this president will be judged the worst ever.

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I believe whoever wrote this may be the most ignorant person to ever get something published in a paper. Besides Dowd that is.

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I believe whoever wrote this may be the most ignorant person to ever get something published in a paper. Besides Dowd that is.

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So you've never gotten anything published?

[jaxmike]

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One would think that the president of the United States holds the most stressful job ever. Isn't it wonderful that our pompous president is in such excellent condition healthwise?

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First, why call him pompous. I think hes actually quite humble. Already this guy screams moron.

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And why not? His eligible daughters aren't in Iraq protecting our country like so many others, more than 1,800 who have given their lives for a war that he started.

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Volunteer military. Now that that's out of the way. The war was not started by him. But I won't argue that.

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With a smirk on his face, he says, "We will stay the course." Who is "we?" Not him or his family. Heck no.

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Why a smirk? Because this guy hates Bush for some reason. We is the people of this country. He IS one of the people. There.

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He's on a month's vacation. If he's so gung-ho about this war, show us some guts and send your kids to the front lines.

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No, its a volunteer army, or is this person so stupid they can't understand that.

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This war is not being won; the insurgents just keep on coming. And terrorism has gotten much worse since he began this senseless war.

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Funny how the Al-Qaeda leadership don't really think they are winning the war. Funny how Iraq is about to have a Constitution. But, whatever you do, totally and completely ignore the good news, and believe everything you see on TV.

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Then, too, he has no worry about health insurance. Boy, is he covered, not like the millions who have none. And what about the poor, the homeless and those who barely eke out a living? It's not his problem.

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That is RIGHT! It is NOT his problem.

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Why worry? Go on vacation. Imagine a month's vacation. No wonder he's in such good condition. And while he's gone, who's minding the store?

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Well, he is minding the store. Only someone ignorant (willfully or otherwise) thinks the President is having a classic "vacation". He spends more time working on his vacation that almost anyone else does at their job.

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The other pompous snake?

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No, Clinton "served" his two terms. Got us attacked on 9/11 it looks like too. Good work Slick Willy.

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I would think that if Dubya likes Texas so much, he should stay there and let one who has the total concern of our nation and its people take his place. In history, I believe this president will be judged the worst ever.

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And I believe that the writer will be wrong. Like he is about just about everything else. This letter is one of the most ignorant things I have ever seen published. Maureen Dowd would be proud.

[Edge34]

Seriously, regardless of the position this writer holds, they lost me when they began relating President Bush's health to the fact that his children aren't overseas fighting.

As well, the nice thing is that his children, being of legal age for military service, have been given the choice. He could no more force them to go into service than my parents could force me to go. Yet another foolish statement made by a mindless Bush-bashing letter-writer.

Terrorism has gotten much worse since he began this war? Well, the war in Iraq has been going on for quite some time now, and yes, there were some bombings in Britain which thankfully didn't cost more lives than they did. And yes, there have been suicide bombings, but those certainly aren't anything new for that region, in fact they seem to be the standard operating procedure for the mass extremists who think they are accomplishing any real goals.

Bush's health insurance. Every President has great health care. Its part of the perks of the job. And there have always been many people without health care. This is not a Bush thing. This is a standard domestic policy issue.

This person has made precisely zero good points. Seriously, I am doing my best not to just laugh at the person who wrote this. They know precisely nothing about international politics or the stresses of the job of President. They make outrageous claims and use non sequitur as backup.

[phlup]

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I believe whoever wrote this may be the most ignorant person to ever get something published in a paper. Besides Dowd that is.

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So you've never gotten anything published?

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It's shocking that he hasn't since he offers so much to the discussion.

And yes, we are aware that Bush can't enlist his kids. That's not the point. The point is that he has no personal stake in this. When our troops are killed does he get hurt in any way? When we spend billions to rebuild Iraq does it come out of his pocket? No. The costs of his war are carried by the American public.

And he’s getting 400k a year and taking more vacation time than any president in history.

You can call the author ignorant or whatever you wish, but the fact is you haven't said anything to prove that point.

Let me first address the question of who started this war:

You claim that it wasn't Bush who started it. This argument is preposterous at its core. Bush has war powers granted to him by Congress, as has every President for the past 30 years. He went to Congress, and worked hard to get the Iraq War resolution passed giving him the power to send troops there for more than 60 days. He is the one who gave the order on March 19th to declare war, after Saddam had not obeyed his call to surrender. To say that anyone other than Bush is responsible for the war is like saying that Hitler wasn't responsible for the Holocaust. And no I'm not comparing Bush to Hitler or the Iraq War to the Holocaust, just to make that clear. I was just pointing out that Hitler had absolute power, and Bush has had nearly as much in the commencement and operation of this war.

Now that that point has been looked at, let's move on the next one:

I am quite aware that we have a volunteer military in this country, as I have already pointed out. You are right that Bush's daughters cannot be forced to serve. That doesn't mean they shouldn't serve. Both are on record supporting the war and their father's Iraq policy. They surely understand that by not serving, other people are serving in their place. If those people die, they are partially responsible, because they are war proponents who refused to serve, and that is something that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives, and they will have to answer for it in the afterlife- if you believe in that sort of thing.

People who support the war, and are eligible to serve, but choose not to, are hypocrites to the highest degree. You may fall into this category.

You may laugh my post off as stupid liberal bullshit and go to a party tonight, maybe have a few beers and bang a few chicks. That's fine of course, it's college. But remember that there are 150,000 troops serving in Iraq who aren't able to chill out and have a beer. They are in danger 24/7, fighting a war that wasn't necessary.

[Edge34]

Scoot,

Let me be the first to say, I didn't say it wasn't Bush who started the war. Jaxmike did. Now that that's out of the way, Congress, Bush, blah blah blah.

To blame all those who don't serve for the deaths of those who chose to enlist is wrong. There is certainly no way to know if Soldier X would live or die, independent of who else served. Not a personal thing, but this is clearly a highly illogical point that you make. That's like saying someone who didn't serve in WWII is "partially responsible" for the deaths of soldiers there, or taken to an even more hyperbolistic (is that even a word? oh well) point, like saying if someone didn't serve in WWII that they are partially responsible for the deaths of Jews in the holocaust.

I have the utmost respect for those soldiers who voluntarily enlisted and who have been sent over to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or the Koreas, or Bosnia, or anywhere we are right now. I don't intend to laugh your post off as stupid liberal bullshit, but the person who wrote this letter is thoroughly ignorant. Not to mention, being President isn't a tax-free job to the best of my knowledge. So also, the writer wanted to talk about the rest of the public bearing the cost of the war, but the President as well as every other elected official like any other citizen, does in fact pay for this.

Not to cut you off Scoot, but we simply disagree on the war's necessity. Its been argued hundreds of times, and there's no way you're going to change my mind, and vice versa, I believe.

[Roybert]

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Not to cut you off Scoot, but we simply disagree on the war's necessity. Its been argued hundreds of times, and there's no way you're going to change my mind, and vice versa, I believe.

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So, to be clear, you are saying that the Iraqi war is a necessity? It's a necessity that my family is taken care of. It is a necessity to provide myself and my loved ones with food, clothing and shelter. In fact, by the very definition of the word 'necessity', these tasks are so important that I don't leave the responsibility of fulfilling them to anyone other than myself. I would be seen as incredibly irresponsible and even negligent if I were to place the onus of completing these jobs onto someone else.

For every able-bodied American between the ages of 18-35 who believes this war to be a 'necessity' yet is not serving in the armed forces, your failure to do so is due to either laziness or cowardice.