This page was last updated on July 17, 2004.

'Brilliant' GI Bill of Rights has helped millions and millions; Gino Piroli; Beaver County Times; July 12, 2004.

Once again Mr. Piroli took what was otherwise an interesting piece to bash President Bush.  Below is a detailed critique of the relevant portions of the column.

"Last month was the 60th anniversary of the passage of the GI Bill, legislation that author James Michener called 'one of the two or three finest laws Congress ever passed since our Constitution took effect.  The consequences were phenomenal.'

"It resulted from the wisdom of one of the greatest presidents in our history, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"We use the term 'great' rather loosely when describing persons or actions.  Roosevelt deserves it when you think of what he did only a year after the war began and three years before it ended in planning for the veterans' return."

[RWC] Mr. Piroli is guilty of his own assessment that we use the term "great" loosely.  The GI Bill was a good thing, but I don't know how that translates into FDR being "one of the greatest presidents in our history."  History simply doesn't support this assessment by Democrat partisans.  I'm not saying FDR was a bad president.  I just don't see greatness compared to Washington and Lincoln.  FDR didn't end the Great Depression -- WWII did -- and he was president when Germany and Japan rose to power.  FDR also considered the USSR an ally.  FDR issued Executive Order 9066 that put over 100,000 Japanese Americans in WWII internment camps.

"Compare that with our present administration, which keeps changing the reasoning for its mad rush into Iraq, failed to prepare for the occupation and has no timetable for the return of our brave service men and women."

[RWC] Perhaps Mr. Piroli would honor us with truthful facts to support his claims.  The Iraq War resolution included several motivating factors.  To my knowledge, the Bush administration has never backed away from any of these factors.  For the record, 69% of the House approved the resolution as did 77% of the Senate.  39% of House Democrats and 58% of Senate Democrats voted for the resolution.  If you believe the Bush administration made a "mad rush into Iraq," you must believe the same of Congress, including a lot of Democrats.

Regarding timetables, perhaps Mr. Piroli can answer this question.  What was FDR's "timetable for the return of our brave service men and women" from World War II?  Regarding Iraq, think about it for a second.  If you were a terrorist, wouldn't you love to know when the U.S. military and its allies were going to leave?  A "smart" terrorist would simply lie low until we left.

As a reminder, we occupied Japan for nearly seven years.  Japan didn't regain sovereignty until April 1952.  We occupied Germany for four years.  We maintain large military presences in both of these countries to this day, almost 60 years after WWII.  We occupied Iraq for less than 15 months.

"It's difficult for me to read of support for what has to be the most incoherent and incompetent administration we've ever had, at least in my lifetime."

[RWC] Again, perhaps Mr. Piroli would honor us with truthful facts to support this repeated claim of his.  When he makes off-the-wall claims like these, he hurts his credibility by sounding like Michael Moore.

"Late-night host Jon Stewart of television's Comedy Central says it best: 'It's bad enough they're incompetent; worse is their righteous incompetence."

[RWC] OK, let me get this straight.  We're to accept as insightful a comedian's comment intended to get laughs?

"They never admit to any mistakes or failures, and offer no explanations.  They just say 'thugs, evildoers, terror or freedom,' and that seems to satisfy the faithful."

[RWC] This apology bit is ridiculous and getting old.  Democrat partisans simply want a video clip they can use in the election campaign.

Mr. Piroli implies Bush administration supporters are dumb by claiming all we need to hear are some keywords like "thug," "evildoer," et cetera and we fall in line.  I'm sure that's true for some Bush supporters, just as I'm sure some Democrats believe party propaganda without question.  I hope those people are a small minority of both parties.  For this republic to work, we need people who can separate wheat from chaff.

© 2004 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.