Jenna Bush: "It's Not Even A Practical Question" To Ask Why I'm Not In Iraq

Time:

The following Q&A With Jenna Bush is from Time Magazine's weekly 10 Questions feature where readers submit questions online.

Below is a question from Donald Pence, San Francisco about Jenna Bush service in Iraq.

If the war in Iraq is so noble, why aren't you and your sister serving our country there?

Jenna Bush: I understand that point, but there are many ways to serve our country, and I think my skills are better suited for teaching and representing the U.S. in Latin America through unicef. I respect the men and women of our country who are over there fighting. It is an unbelievably selfless thing to do. But if people really thought about it, they would know it's not even a practical question.

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[stevobar]

What a dimbulb...like father, like daughter.

[Captain EdwardGraham]

Rocket attack at US base in Iraq kills 2
AP via Yahoo! News - 1 hour, 39 minutes ago Rockets fired from a nearby abandoned school struck Camp Victory, killing two members of the U.S.-led coalition and wounding 40 other people on the sprawling headquarters for U.S. forces in Iraq, the military said Thursday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luLGWaEVJhs&mode=related&search= Heil Bu$h

[squareyellowpaper]

Back to the topic before the Republicans tried to deflect our attention away from the chickenhawk bush twins.

The Bush twins, like the Romney cowards, will reap the financial rewards of the war but will refuse to serve their country. The concept of national service is lost on young Republican cowards.

[kay]

Boring.

Has there ever been an interesting Grown Child Of A President?

Not in my memory.

This is interesting, though.

Numbers:

Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States. And, because of its long isolation, it is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these estimates are anywhere close to the mark, US forces are now sitting on one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30 trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.

Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s ‘benchmarks’ for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil revenues. The draft law that the US has written for the Iraqi congress would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies. The Iraq National Oil Company would retain control of 17 of Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields, leaving the rest – including all yet to be discovered oil – under foreign corporate control for 30 years.

[BuyRubles]

compelling. Bush is smarter than I thought.

What an amazing ROI!

I wonder who did the NPV analysis for this neo-con project.

[peacekitten]

kay,

it's only fair to warn you that when i tried to point out the exact same thing the first day that oil hit $80 a barrel, a right winger claiming to be a petroleum engineer pooh-poohed this idea claiming that according to the u.s. geological survey, iraq only has about 14 billion barrels of oil.

now, never mind the fact that the industry standard are the figures provided by the department of energy, which parallel the ones you cited.

and never mind of course, the natural gas iraq also has which will only add to the astronomical worth of its reserves.

anyone who can still claim this disaster isn't about oil, needs some serious help.

[hip dibler]

what the fuck does she know about practical? i'd bet it's the one thing she hasn't done.

[hershy]

With "progressives" like these, who needs Bushies... or Pol Pot? Geez. The hate, vitriol towards Jenna kills me... is this really the intellectual and emotional level people are operating at? This just doesn't bode well for a progressive movement in America.

What words, what acts of political perfection would spare a woman from such dripping hate? Are we really going to fry her for being her father's daughter? Would we spare her if she disowned her stupid dad, dissed her Secret Service detail and ran away from home to volunteer incognito in Dafur? Seems to me there is nothing she could say that could possibly please anybody politically, given who she is. She pretty much declares right off the bat she loves her family, loves her dad, she's not political, doesn't have interest in politics -- rather, she's doing what she's doing, given her world. What do you expect -- we could burn her at the stake for that to, right? What would be "good enough" to be spared the rod?

Look, her experiences of late are better than nothing and, in fact, pretty good for a member of a powerful greedy dynastic oil family. I'm sure these exposures to the larger world aren't hurting her. People change -- and not always into the perfect political progressives we want them to be. But you never know. Look at the namesake for this website.... people grow and evolve and change. But more than that, people are people. Jenna Bush is George's daughter, not a political appointee, not the of the administration that thrust this war for oil upon the world. That's a big sin and it doesn't belong to her.

Leave her the f- alone, this mobbishness doesn't become y'all, just marginalizes "libs" as fanatics. If she one day becomes a politician or pundit, then she's in the game -- but I don't think that's her world. She's Jenna Bush, she's young, famous by default, likes her Dad, takes an interest in Aids and education, there ya go. She's human. She's distracting you in no good way. Focus on W. Fer cryin' out loud.

[PixieThis]

Have you read most of the comments? Or did you come in here with preconceived notions? Don't lump all liberals in the same basket, jerk.

[MI6troll]

She gave an interview.

She gave up any right of privacy.

[YellerDawg]

and she's hawking a book. If she doesn't want criticism, maybe she should stop getting drunk in public.

[TexMex]

What frosts me is the "school teacher" label. Talking to kids and helping them is called a teacher's aid. Teaching a regular classroom requires a degree in teaching. Some can get it as an undergraduate degree and some get it as a master's. It is a job that people do. 8-4 daily job. some are librarians, some are consulting teachers. But volunteering at a charter school for photo ops in order to destroy the public school system placed by her father's Sec of education Margaret Spelling is getting political.
"Before leaving Washington, D.C. in Summer 2006, Bush taught at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School for a year and a half.[11] She is currently teaching at a shelter several days a week as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama.[12][13]"
So she is teaching in Panama but is writing a book and giving interviews on Larry King??

How come it doesn't say what grade level she taught at. Kinder? 4th grade??
she has an English degree. Getting a teaching degree at the university of Texas required several courses in how to teach children to read. I went to U.T. and their education department is outstanding. She didn't learn to teach. So :
Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS
Charter school · Grades K-6 · 251 students
3220 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010
[phone]
District:
Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS Agency

Pretty small school. Very small classes So she was an uncertified person teaching. Sure............. Some on who believes that?
Total B.S.

[LIR]

There have been other Presidents whose children served...no questions asked. There is no reason or excuse why she shouldn't be, since her Father is so concerned "democracy" in Iraq, his daughters are able-bodied enough to be ambassadors for his cause. Takes an interest in AIDS an education? More interested in partying and helping Daddy secure his getaway in South America when the law comes knockin' for him. No one is planning on leaving her
the f- alone", as long as young men and women her age are over there dying for no good reason. There is no legitimate excuse for apologizing for and enabling her moral vacuousness, ever. There is no sympathy for her mindless lifestyle. Not now, not anytime.

[JohnKemp]

Please, spare me the feigned indignation.

I never have known which is lower; the libs' intellect or their ethics.

Beautiful young girl, lots of volunteering & wants to be a school teacher, and the libs attack her.

Completely expected.

As Coulter states,"If Dems had a brain, they would be Republicans."

[LaFeminazi]

If Coulter had a brain he would be funny.

[bick]

all together now: "chelsea is ugly, chelsea is ugly, chelsea is ugly...."

[YellowPanties]

JohnKemp, your psychiatrist is calling.

If you are rich and don't have to work for a living, IT'S EASY TO VOLUNTEER... unless it's volunteering to serve in the military, evidently.

Anyone who uses a Coulter quotation is in need of some serious mental help!

[Horus]

I'm not going to address the inherent logic to your point. I'm just going to respond with an ad-hom or non-sequitur.

It's a shortcut past thinking.

[JUSTME]

No, Hershy: She is fair game. Because she is a Bush daughter, she gets a free pass to publish a book that makes believe she comes from a family that actually cares about anyone dying of AIDS. She is fair game because Bush, and anyone connected to Bush--or Cheney--need to become a cautionary tale for all future generations of lying politicians who consider it no big deal to trample on the Constitution and sell our government to the highest bidder. The level of vitriol against any member of the Bush family is legitimate and well deserved. Jenna, and not-Jenna, our erstwhile First Daughters, belong to a family that has done irreparable harm to this nation and will continue to do so until the last of Bush's appointees is gone from the Supreme Court. Torture, corruption, oppression, immorality, illegality--these are Bush bywords. Jenna is fair game until and unless she publicly renounces and rejects not only her father, but the entire Bush family. You bet she's fair game. Instead of worrying about being fair to Jenna, worry about the 3800 American dead, tens of thousands of American wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, and millions of homeless refugees in the Middle East.

[957]

Looks like Jenna could stand to sent some of that food thats making her dress tight to the starving kids her dad created in iraq.

[AmandaNC]

I'm probably more liberal than even the average reader of this site, and that's saying something. But 957, you're acting like a jerk by just mouthing off about her weight. If you want to say something substantive about the war, please do so, but this is just nasty.

[Balzac]

This isn't about Jenna. Give her a break.

I just want to put her dad in prison.

I have nothing against Jenna or her sister.

[LIR]

You would have a reason to think that if she lived by example for young people everywhere and was helping in Iraq, in some capacity. Even Prince Harry found it in him to want to go, but security risks obviously precluded it. Jenna Bush not being a possible heir to anything worthwhile, her excuse for not serving is not good enough.

Before the war is over, every last chickenhawk, every last apologist for the occupation, including trolls here and Jenna Bush enablers, need to get their asses over there. You will all appreciate the tremendous sacrifice of body, spirit, family unity and sanity that our soldiers are enduring. Notice I do not include mercenaries/contractors, for their greed eliminates any honor in their service whatsoever.

[Horus]

What kind of liberal are you? You must want her cast naked into a pit of fire.

I recommend you submit yourself to the Ministry of Truth for re-education ASAP.

[godlessclif]

Young Henry Hager got his start two years ago as an intern in the White House for Karl Rove and later moved to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. "He's a nice guy, a smart guy, an ambitious guy," a Bush adviser told us. "Well liked, popular."

"While many Americans expected Jenna Bush to eventually shack up with a meth dealer in a Florida trailer park, it turns out her “background” and “pedigree” sort of determined long ago that she would marry another rich white douche from another rich and powerful family that makes billions of dollars on something that kills poor brown people — in Jenna’s case, that industry is oil and war, while in Henry Hager’s case, that industry is tobacco" ...Wonkette

[ManipulatedByMedia]

Hmmm, I think all of our soldiers in Iraq could better serve the country by being home writing books...Just me, I guess..

[myshadow]

Jesus, I can't believe this is the lead story.

[joja]

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it? What a total ass!

I'm surprised she actually used a word like "practical" -- it's got more than one syllable -- tho it's obvious from her answer, she has no idea what it means.

[CmmnSnse]

Oh please, it's not her fault which family she was born into. If she was some celebrity in LA, we'd be talking about what a wonderful humanitarian she is. It's not a practical question.

[Weathermaker]

Remember Kerry's comment/joke about "stuck in Iraq"? How true... Too bad he didn't have the cojones to defend that statement.

[only1Demvoter]

Weathermaker : Good point. If Kerry had defended his position, and the REAL meaning of his ' little quip ', America might be a much better place right now. -ralph

[speakingtruth2power]

If he still had his cojones, he wouldn't have been picked as the fall guy

for the swapping of another Clinton for another Bush conspiracy/cabal!

[Bulbul]

Why not ?
Does she think the troops have a choice, they could serve the country by coming back or not going at all. This is a made up war, how does Bush-Cheney`s sleep at night and grins like that !
Now not only Jena, Cheney`s wife has written a books and was giggleing about it at the Daily Show.

[Manhattanite]

Heavens! She looks just like her father, porcine eyes and all!