BCT Editorial – 10/23/06

This page was last updated on October 23, 2006.

Cause for tears; Editorial; Beaver County Times; October 23, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Perhaps Americans should start calling President Bush the ‘Bringer of Tears.’”

[RWC] Should President Bush share this title with Presidents Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson?

“In an interview with ABC News last week, Bush said that while he is sticking to his policies in Iraq, he is troubled by the deaths of Americans.

“‘It breaks my heart, because behind every casualty is somebody with tears in their eyes,’ he said. ‘Behind every casualty are families that will be mourning the loss of life for a lifetime.’

“Go back to July 2003, when the insurgency was just starting to pick up speed, largely because of the postwar bungling on the part of the Bush administration.

“Bush the braggart was still riding high.”

[RWC] Ah, name-calling. A sure sign of a top-drawer editorial – not.

“‘There are some who feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there,’ Bush, who dodged combat in Vietnam by joining the Texas National Guard, said at the time. ‘My answer is bring ‘em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.’”

[RWC] Texas Air National Guard = draft dodging?

May we assume the Times endorsed President Bush #1 and Bob Dole over Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, respectively? I doubt it.

If you recall, Messrs. Dole and Bush #1 were legitimate World War II heroes. Mr. Clinton evaded (an illegal act) the Vietnam draft by deceiving an Army colonel into admitting him to the ROTC program. Mr. Clinton then ran back to school in England and actively protested the U.S. government. To make it even better – and after he was 100% sure you can’t be drafted, Mr. Clinton wrote a letter to the aforementioned colonel describing how Mr. Clinton duped him.¹

“The cavalier attitude of the president to the potential American casualties that might be the result of the insurgents bringing ‘em on was appalling then, and it remains so to this day.

“What he says now about the dead, maimed and wounded cannot erase his responsibility for their terrible fates. A first-class military organization is being ground up because of this administration’s lethal combination of arrogance and stubbornness.”

[RWC] This is at least the ninth time a Times editorial has referred to our military as being “ground up,” “ground down,” et cetera. These claims go back at least to April 2004, after only about a year in Iraq.

“The phrase ‘bring ‘em’ on’ will haunt Bush, and deservedly so.”

[RWC] How mean-spirited. So much for the myth that liberals are the sensitive guys.

1. Clinton Letter to Colonel Holmes; Bill Clinton; December 3, 1969.