Iraq War "Worth It"?: Not a Single Volunteer from the Bush Family, a Republican Member of Congress, or Administration

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

Comments

[JoeC]

Bush is like the belligerent drunk friend who keeps convincing us to let him take the wheel while our vehicle is going 90-to-nothing...and even though our automobile is almost totalled, and the remains of thousands of victims are splattered on the hood and windshield, the passengers just can't find the guts to take the wheel back...

[SamThornton]

One of the delicious ironies of the past few years is that President Bush and the Republican Congress have given us the tools to bring the President and all his co-conspirators to justice.

On January 20, 2009, when then ex-President Bush arrives at his Crawford, Texas ranch he should be met by a squad of Military Police, arrested, and whisked away to Guantanamo, Cuba to await trial for crimes against humanity. I'm sure we have enough MPs to also do for Cheney, Gonzo, Rumsfeld, et al.

Booya!

[Oldekirk]

Why not impeach this massdmurderer of a president now, before we loose another 1000 soldiers to this insanity and another 5 thousand wounded.
And those Fundamentalists tried to impeach Clinton for a little sex in the White House.
This mass murderer Bush has tens of thousands of people killed and gets away with it.
The Democrats are all cowards for not impeaching him.

[ntmessage]

Of course, Bush was going to invade some country, or more specifically, he was going to start a war somewhere, somehow. The axis of evil rhetoric was not something that was just made up. It was part of a purposeful PR modern campaign interwoven with cold war propaganda.

Eisenhower was right warning Americans about the industrial military complex and we will continue to fall into this trap every 30-50 years or so for generations to come. This is because the military and their contractors have purposefully spread procurement dollars into every state of the union and across the globe. In addition, we have been arming countries in the Middle East for some time, another revenue stream. Without war, the IMC would have a smaller role to play in on the national and global stage. The peace dividend is great for people but an anathema to these businesses and agencies.

The IMC by itself is still reversible, but add powerful think tanks like Project for the New American Century as well as Global Oil and Gas corporations, the largest companies in the world into the mix and you have the situation we are in now a seemingly intractable union of powerful interests.

It is well known historically that war is disproportionally split along economic and opportunity lines. In addition to patriotic reasons, many join the military for social, economic and opportunity purposes. This is why there is such a clear divide outside of the Officer Class.

The real axis of evil perhaps could be the Industrial/Military Complex, Neoconservative Think Tanks and Oil/Gas corporations. Frankly, we did not stand a chance.

[hopeless277]

It will always amaze me that a supposedly intelligent population could not see the cowardice of ALL Republicans when it comes to actual battle. If I were Superman, I'd grab GWB and RBC and drop them in Bagdad OUTSIDE the green zone in full battle gear to see just how much they really love war. Ah, well, a guy can dream, can't he?

[dogman44]

Can be in your dream to? I would really like to see it!