Who owes whom an apology?
I was not surprised to see the hyperbolic venom flowing after Senator Kerry's small gaffe on the "you'll end up in Iraq" speach.
Kerry has actually fired back at the critics rather effectively. I think the best article I have seen on this topic was posted online by D. Allan Kerr, of SeaCoast Online.
He states: Don't be fooled - Kerry isn't the issue here
Culling Archives
OK, wait a minute - who owes WHO an apology??
I turned on the tube after getting home from work Halloween night and there they were: bloodshot and bug-eyed, foam drooling down their chins, arms windmilling like Pete Townshend with a hornet up his butt. Not your traditional ghouls in the shadows, but that insidious race of right-wing dilettantes found only on cable networks.
For a moment I thought they were trying to better Rush Limbaugh's impersonation of Michael J. Fox because, you know, people with Parkinson's disease can be just so damn funny. But no, on this night they were after another target. This time they were after ... John Kerry?
"What is this, a rerun?" I asked myself.
Because it seemed like 2004 all over again, with the same old cast of characters ganging up on the senator from Massachusetts. And then President Bush was on the screen, struggling mightily to string a sentence together at some campaign stop and ending it with a call for Kerry to apologize to the troops.
Ultimately, of course, I realized this wasn't so much a case of déjà vu as it was -- well, actually it IS a case of déjà vu.
Poor John Kerry, it seems, just can't catch a break. Even though he's no longer running for president -- or any other office, for that matter -- Kerry once again finds himself getting cuffed around by a pack of smarmy elitist chickenhawks trying to cast their own shade on the truth. And once again, they'll probably get away with it.
The controversy stems from a comment Kerry made in California the other night while campaigning for a fellow Democrat. Speaking at Pasadena City College, Kerry took a couple of shots at Bush, telling students although the president is originally from Texas he now "lives in a state of denial."
The former presidential hopeful then said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
The chickenhawks jumped all over the comment, assuming poses of pompous indignation and insisting Kerry had insulted our brave troops fighting in Iraq. "Our soldiers risk their lives in the face of grave dangers on the battlefield, and no one who chooses to courageously and selflessly defend our country can be considered `uneducated,'" huffed Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
What Hastert, Bush and others hope people will forget is that Kerry was one of those "who chooses to courageously and selflessly defend our country." He voluntarily joined the Navy during Vietnam and went on to win the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. To this day, he still has shrapnel in his leg. And what's more, he entered the military after graduating from Yale. If anyone has an appreciation for the importance of education and service to our country, it's Kerry.
I mean, think about it. No, seriously - think about it. In your heart of hearts, does it seem realistic that Kerry would choose to make a disparaging remark about troops facing death and danger every day, given his own experience in the battlefield? Hastert, Limbaugh and White House spokesman Tony Snow - none of whom ever chose to wear the uniform, incidentally - would like you to think so, but of course they don't understand the veteran mindset.
No, Kerry was ridiculing the bumbling, befuddled efforts of Bush, as he has done consistently over the past few years. Look at the context of his remarks. It's Bush who has gotten us "stuck in Iraq," and it's Bush who has failed horribly at coming up with an exit strategy, dawdling about while more soldiers die almost every day. And it's Bush and his minions who, time and again, have exploited our troops for political expedience while lying about the war these troops are fighting.
Kerry, to his credit, lashed back at the chickenhawks with the kind of passion he could have used in 2004. "I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes," he said. "It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did."
It was Bush and his fellow bunglers who "didn't do their homework," Kerry said, resulting in "mistake upon mistake upon mistake." The worst you can say about Kerry is he simply does not know how to communicate his thoughts to mainstream America. That's why he'll never be president.
But you know, that shouldn't even be the issue. Now that the president has demanded Kerry apologize to the troops for what he characterizes as a single disparaging remark, the American public should turn that finger right back at Bush. Because - crap on a biscuit, people! - does ANYONE owe a bigger apology to our troops than George W. Bush??
He owes an apology to the 101 families who lost loved ones to the violence in Iraq last month while the White House meandered between staying the course and suggesting a possible change in strategy without really defining what and when that might be.
He owes an apology to the troops for being absolutely clueless about what he was getting them into when he first orchestrated this war with Iraq; for failing to consider the long-term consequences of an invasion; for failing to take into account the hostilities between Sunnis and Shiites; and for failing to have any sort of endgame in mind beyond toppling Saddam Hussein from power and finishing the job Bush Senior started in 1991.
He owes an apology to the troops for sending them into harm's way without sufficient numbers and equipment; he owes an apology for the thousands of weapons apparently delivered into the wrong hands in Iraq, with one recent audit estimating that one in 25 weapons intended for Iraqi security forces - and paid for by our tax dollars -- has gone missing. Oops.
He owes an apology to the American people for misleading us into this war with lies and false information.
He owes an apology to the troops for severely underestimating the tenacity of Iraqi insurgents and neighboring jihadists, inadvertently creating a breeding ground for terrorists and actually expanding their threat around the globe.
And of course, he owes an apology to the free world for failing to capture Osama bin Laden FIVE YEARS after the 9/11 attacks.
This is the approach Democrats should be taking right at this moment, but of course they won't. Instead, they'll play right into the GOP's hands, as they have time and again. In fact, it's happening already: some idiot in Iowa running for Congress canceled a campaign appearance with Kerry that had been scheduled for Thursday, trying to distance himself from his party's 2004 presidential nominee. If candidates keep it up they'll soon find themselves on the defensive in the final week of this election season, rather than on the attack as they should be.
Look, George W. Bush has a hell of a lot more to answer for than John Kerry, and if the Democrats allow themselves to be thrown off by such a sophomoric maneuver they don't deserve to win back Congress. I mean, come on -- trying to make Kerry a campaign issue in 2006? Can GOP desperation be any more transparent?
Let's maintain some focus, people.
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