To George W. Bush, the loss of nearly 4,000 lives, 30,000 wounded and $500B on the Iraq War is "worth it." But, there is no evidence his family, Republican members of Congress or any member of his Administration agrees -- unless, of course, they mean it is "worth it" for others to be doing the fighting, the dying, and the multiple tours-of-duty.
Pat Tillman left his lucrative and high-profile career in the NFL to volunteer for Afghanistan. Yet, not a single Republican member of Congress of military-age has thought the Iraq war "worth it" enough to resign and volunteer for his country. Adam Putnam (R-FLA), for example, votes to send his generation to war, but will not volunteer himself.
Many members of the Bush administration are under 40. None have volunteered.
Neither of the Bush daughters, nor Jenna's fiancé, nor military age Bush nephews or nieces appear to think the war is "worth it" enough to volunteer. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has two military-age sons. Neither has volunteered despite their dad's sending troops on second and third and fourth extended tours-of-duty. Does Secretary Gates think it is "worth it"? His sons apparently do not.
Mitt Romney has five sons. Not a single one volunteered because, according to Mitt, it was even more patriotic to support his candidacy for president driving around Iowa in a Winnebago. Now that Mitt's out, will any of them go in? Do not hold your gosh-darn breath.
Mitt has said that he himself was waiting, hoping, to be drafted to Vietnam, but, golly-gee he says, that "Greetings from Uncle Sam" letter just never arrived. John Kerry figured out how to volunteer. If only Mitt had thought of that! He, too, could have had a group of cowards besmirch his military record.
George Bush will be out of office, and has waxed wistfully about how great it would be to serve in Afghanistan. The military has been granting exemptions to the age cutoff, and one thing about GWB, he seems to take his exercise seriously. Perhaps after his presidency, he will do his future mountain biking in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. military?
Everyone knows the Iraq War would never have been launched if the military age Republican members of Congress would have been expected to resign and volunteer, or that members of their families and the Bush family would have been expected to go. Both of Lyndon Johnson's sons-in-law volunteered for Vietnam.
Not a single reporter is even curious about this hypocrisy. What exactly, they might ask, does "worth it" mean? Only Rachel Griffiths, an Iowa citizen who asked Romney if his sons were going to volunteer (to which Romney's knee-jerk response was, "thank God we have an all-volunteer army") raised the issue.
To all Americans arguing about the cherry-picked intelligence or lies used to get us into this war, you should stop your bickering. Bush would have invaded anyhow. Even without WMD, even without the link to al-Qaeda, he would have invaded. How do we know? He keeps telling us. Knowing what he knows now, he would have done the same (and would he lie?).
Several months ago, George Bush said that after he left office, he looked forward to kicking his feet back in Crawford, and "filling the ole' coffers."
He should be good at it.
He has filled a lot of coffins, with other peoples' children. "Worth it"?
Read more HuffPost coverage and reaction to the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq
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Posted March 19, 2008 | 02:52 PM (EST)