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July 14, 2007

More "Support of the Troops"

Just remember: the First Amendment gives the antiwar Left absolute moral authority to say anything they want, no matter how obscene, in their relentless quest to "support the troops": (CWCID: Chrissie)

They can, for instance, say that anyone who gives his life in war is an idiot.

They can characterize our armed forces as stupid, uneducated, or ignorant. They can patronize an entire class of professionals whose average age is 27 by referring to them as "children". They can imply that if we had any "real" choices (in other words, if we could just be like them), we wouldn't have chosen the life we lead.

It would be convenient to dismiss Rall as part of the lunatic fringe. As Michelle Malkin notes, his many awards make that a difficult task:

In 1996, he was one of three Finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He was one of the New York Times’ most reprinted cartoonists in 1997, 1999 and 2001. He also did color strips for both Time Magazine and Fortune Magazine from 1998 to 2001. He was awarded the 1998 Deadline Club Award by the Society of Professional Journalists for his cartoons. Rall received first place in both the 1995 and 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for Cartoons. The award, founded in 1968, recognizes distinguished work on behalf of disadvantaged Americans.

Today while I was out and about in my own community I walked past cars sporting childish "Republicans for Voldemort" and "My child is an honor student, my President is a moron" bumper stickers. I have just about had it with people who screech all day long that they are being brutally repressed, or that Republicans are mean-spirited, all while they are shouting their dissent from the rooftops and hurling petty, vicious insults like this:

the 28%ers, the “loyal bushies”, are the type of people who hurt animals as children, and then grow up as bullies. Imperialism is all they know.

Bush supporter:
Drug, Oil, Defence,[sic] international corportations,[sic] chamber of commerence, loony religious right, union haters, and watchers of the fox follies. Just a start but these are the “die hard” supporters because most of these people have money invested in Bush and have had a pretty good return on their investment up to date.

And now even former Republicans are getting into the act:

I received an email before the news conference from as rock-ribbed a Republican as you can find, a Georgia woman (middle-aged, entrepreneurial) who'd previously supported him. She said she'd had it. "I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth." I was startled by her vehemence only because she is, as I said, rock-ribbed. Her email reminded me of another, one a friend received some months ago: "I took the W off my car today," it said on the subject line. It sounded like a country western song, like a great lament.

As I watched the news conference, it occurred to me that one of the things that might leave people feeling somewhat disoriented is the president's seemingly effortless high spirits. He's in a good mood. There was the usual teasing, the partly aggressive, partly joshing humor, the certitude. He doesn't seem to be suffering, which is jarring. Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly suffer: Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn't Mr. Bush? Every major domestic initiative of his second term has been ill thought through and ended in failure. His Iraq leadership has failed. His standing is lower than any previous president's since polling began. He's in a good mood. Discuss.

Is it defiance? Denial? Is it that he's right and you're wrong, which is your problem? Is he faking a certain steely good cheer to show his foes from Washington to Baghdad that the American president is neither beaten nor bowed? Fair enough: Presidents can't sit around and moan. But it doesn't look like an act. People would feel better to know his lack of success sometimes gets to him. It gets to them.

Is this woman clued into reality?

She talks to two people, watches a press conference, gets torqued off and turns it into a column?

Please, Ms. Noonan. Do America a favor. Keep the dimestore psychoanalysis to yourself. Or better yet, do a little research before your write your next column. Try being informed. There's an old maxim about writing what you know. It's entirely possible there's something to it:

Ascione wasn't sure she could restrain herself with the president. She was feeling "raw." "I wanted him to look me in the eye and tell me why my brother was never coming back, and I wanted him to know it was his fault that my heart was broken," she recalls. The president was coming to Florida, a key swing state, in the middle of his re-election campaign. Ascione was worried that her family would be "exploited" by a "phony effort to make good with people in order to get votes."

Ascione and her family were gathered with 18 other families in a large room on the air base. The president entered with some Secret Service agents, a military entourage and a White House photographer. "I'm here for you, and I will take as much time as you need," Bush said. He began moving from family to family. Ascione watched as mothers confronted him: "How could you let this happen? Why is my son gone?" one asked. Ascione couldn't hear his answer, but soon "she began to sob, and he began crying, too. And then he just hugged her tight, and they cried together for what seemed like forever."

Ascione's family was one of the last Bush approached. Ascione still planned to confront him, but Bush disarmed her in an almost uncanny way. Ascione is just over five feet; her late brother was 6 feet 7. "My whole life, he used to put his hand on the top of my head and just hold it there, and it drove me crazy," she says. When Bush saw that she was crying, he leaned over and put his hand on the top of her head and drew her to him. "It was just like my brother used to do," she says, beginning to cry at the memory.

Before Bush left the meeting, he paused in the middle of the room and said to the families, "I will never feel the same level of pain and loss you do. I didn't lose anyone close to me, a member of my family or someone that I love. But I want you to know that I didn't go into this lightly. This was a decision that I struggle with every day."

As he spoke, Ascione could see the grief rising through the president's body. His shoulder slumped and his face turned ashen. He began to cry and his voice choked. He paused, tried to regain his composure and looked around the room. "I am sorry, I'm so sorry," he said.

But people like Peggy don't bother to find out what the President is doing:

David Schlegel came with his mother Thursday to honor the memory of his brother, Navy Cmdr. Robert Schlegel, who died in the attack on the Pentagon nearly five years ago.

"The anniversary of it brings back a lot of memories," said Schlegel, who also served in the Navy, "and this meeting actually brings a little more meaning to it."

Schlegel said his impressions of the president changed in the quarter-hour they spent together.

"You see a different side in person from what you see in the TV," he said. "Once I met him in person, I was very impressed by his genuineness and sincerity. It wasn't like we were sitting across the table from somebody -- we were three chairs, grouped, and I probably could have reached out and touched him."

What Schlegel found most surprising was simply the attention.

"I was impressed that it lasted so long," he said. "It's nice to know that somebody that high up actually appreciates, and can take 15 to 20 minutes out of their schedule, with everything else that's going on in the world, to spend time with a family that was really affected by this."

Ms. Noonan is convinced the President is too upbeat, almost eerily unaffected by the war:

One anti-war widow said she used the opportunity to voice her objections to Bush's policies.

"I said it's time to stop the bleeding," said Hildi Halley, whose husband, Army National Guard Capt. Patrick Damon, died June 15 in Afghanistan. "It's time to swallow our pride and find a solution."

She said Bush responding by saying "there was no point in us having a philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of the war."

The president became emotional, Halley said, when she tearfully described the impact her 41-year-old husband's death has had on herself and their two kids, ages 12 and 14, both of whom attended the meeting.

"He wept and hugged me and apologized for my pain," Halley said.

But for some people, facts are irrelevant because you see, they already know the truth.

And they support the troops. Oh yes, they support us all the way.

Posted by Cassandra at July 14, 2007 04:44 PM

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Posted by: tom carsley at July 14, 2007 06:02 PM

Posted by: Foxfier at July 14, 2007 06:35 PM

Posted by: Cassandra at July 14, 2007 07:16 PM

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