Ed Hum – 8/25/06

This page was last updated on August 25, 2006.

Who remembers?; Edward J. Hum; Beaver County Times; August 25, 2006.

Mr. Hum wrote two letters in a row in which he didn’t include his obligatory attempt to convince us he’s a Republican. I guess the pressure got to be too much because he once again started off his letter with, “Fellow Republicans.”

Mr. Hum led off his letter from September 2005 with, “Fellow Republicans, this is my last letter about George W. Bush.” I responded with, “Anyone taking bets?” This is Mr. Hum’s sixth anti-Bush letter since his September promise.

This letter is of the same quality we’ve come to expect from Mr. Hum.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Fellow Republicans, George W. Bush is the luckiest president. On Monday, JonBenet and Roethlisberger’s thumb were all over the front pages and every TV news channel.”

[RWC] While the JonBenet Ramsey story spilled over to this week, the “Roethlisberger’s thumb” story was last week’s news. In any case, why would these stories make President Bush “the luckiest president?” Was President Bush also lucky when Hezbollah attacked Israel?

“Who remembers the cocky ‘Mission Accomplished’ Bush?”

[RWC] President Bush did not proclaim, “mission accomplished.” This was a banner on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln acknowledging the initial mission of booting Saddam Hussein out of power was accomplished. During his speech on the Lincoln, President Bush clearly stated, “We have difficult work to do in Iraq.”

“Who remembers 3,000 coalition troops killed and 20,000 wounded?”

[RWC] If you believe Mr. Hum actually cares about coalition deaths and casualties for anything other than a statistic, you give him far more credit than I.

“Who remembers hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded and more terrorist attacks worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001, than before?”

[RWC] If you believe Mr. Hum actually cares about “Iraqis killed,” you give him far more credit than I. Also, he’s making up numbers when he claims “hundreds of thousands.” He’s probably thinking about Saddam Hussein. Even liberal websites are claiming “only” about 50,000.

Regarding the “more terrorist attacks worldwide” comment, I’d like to know from where Mr. Hum gets his data. Does Mr. Hum actually expect us to believe this comment? Terrorist attacks have been occurring for a very, very long time. Of course, for many folks like Mr. Hum, their history began the day President Bush took office.

Even if I accepted Mr. Hum’s claim, did you notice he didn’t claim more terrorist attacks against U.S. interests? Since 9/11, there’s been “only” one successful terrorist attack against U.S. interests outside the U.S. I’m excluding Afghanistan and Iraq because those are war zones. Inside the U.S., the closest thing to non-thwarted terrorist attack was the anthrax in the mail within a month of 9/11.

“Who remembers Cheney hunting on a private farm with guaranteed kills or Rumsfeld saying you can’t plan for everything in a war?”

[RWC] The “private farm” is a 50,000-acre (78 square miles) cattle ranch. That’s over five times the area of Center Township.

“Guaranteed kills?” Where did that come from?

Regarding “Rumsfeld saying you can’t plan for everything in a war,” does Mr. Hum claim you can plan for everything?

“Who remembers Bush as a youngster choosing the National Guard over the regular armed forces when the Guard wasn’t being sent to Vietnam?”

[RWC] I can’t believe guys like Mr. Hum are still on the National Guard non-story. He probably still believes Dan Rather’s forged documents were real.

“Who remembers Bush’s allies swift-boating a guy who actually got shot at in Vietnam?”

[RWC] The Bush campaign didn’t smear John Kerry’s military record. Both President Bush and VP Cheney said Kerry served honorably and should be proud of that service. Here’s a specific example from an August 30, 2004, interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer. Lauer asked, “Do you think you both act — served on the same level of heroism?” President Bush replied, “That no, I don’t. I think his going to Vietnam was more heroic than my flying fighter jets. I mean he was in harm’s way. I wasn’t. On the other hand, I served my country. Had my unit been called up, I would have gone.” That was a pretty gracious response given that Kerry – and his wife – likened Bush’s National Guard service to running away to Canada.

Not that it makes a difference, but John Kerry admits he tried to avoid Vietnam. After graduating from Yale, Kerry applied for a deferment to study in Paris. The draft board denied his request. It was then Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserves. No one doubts that Kerry served honorably, though some who served with Kerry – Swift Boat Veterans for Truth – claim he lied about some points and exaggerated others.

“I hope Bush never swift-boats any veterans of the Iraq War.”

[RWC] Are we even using swift boats in Iraq? <g>