Military Service

The issue of military service is a contentious one in modern politics. The main split is between the Democrats (who, although they tend to have more extensive and impressive military careers, are more reluctant to dispatch American troops to battle) and the Republicans (who, although they tend to avoid military service if at all possible, are gung-ho for starting wars); the former, as might be expected from people who have actually fought in combat, are reluctant to put others through the same experience, while the latter think that it's a very brave and noble sacrifice as long as someone else gets to make it.

Of course, there have always been conflicts between the military leadership and their civilian counterparts, and there is nothing inherently wrong with leaders who have no military experience sending troops into battle; Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (both Democrats), for example, won the First and Second World Wars despite not having been in the service themselves. Still, one can't help but notice how many extremely hawkish right-wingers somehow managed to avoid serving in the military, in contrast to how many left-wing liberals nonetheless fought for their countries.

Since 1945, a number of prominent Democrats have served in the military during wartime -- Harry S Truman (WWI); Howell Heflin, Fritz Hollings, Tom Lantos, George McG overn, John Glenn, Dan Inouye, Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy (WWII); Chuck Rangel, Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale (Korea); James Carville, Gray Davis, Al Gore, Tom Harkin, Chuck Robb, Max Cleland, Tom Daschle, Bob Kerrey, John Kerry, and Jack Murtha (Viet Nam); and Markos Moulitsas (the Gulf War).

While the Republicans are not entirely lacking in leaders and spokesmen who have seen wartime service, most of them are of the previous generation and served during WWII (notably George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tom Warner, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon). Only one prominent Republican served in Korea (Bob Dornan, and he enlisted after fighting had ended), and few -- in contrast with the Democrats -- in Vietnam (Chuck Hagel, John Mc Cain, Oliver North, Tom Ridge and Duke Cunningham, whose sterling service didn't prevent him from becoming a huge crook once he got home). The few other G.O.P. bigwigs who served tended to choose the National Guard (Don Nickles, George W. Bush, Dan Quayle), and at least two (Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger) found even that too burdensome and went AWOL. Most tellingly, the list of Republican heavies who were of military age during wartime and did not serve at all is quite lengthy: Eliot Abrams, Dick Armey, John Ashcroft, William Bennett, Michael Bloomberg, Roy Blunt, Pat Buchanan, Jeb Bush, Saxby Chambliss, Dick Cheney, John Cornyn, Doug Feith, Dennis Hastert, Charlie Daniels, Tom De Lay, Bill Frist, Paul Gigot, Newt Gingrich, Rudolph Giuliani, Phil Gramm, Jack Kemp, Bill Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, Trent Lott, Mitch Mc Connell, Ted Nugent, Bill O'Reilly, George Pataki, Richard Perle, Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson, Dana Rohrbacher, Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, Michael Savage, Antonin Scalia, Richard Shelby, Ken Starr, CLarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, John Wayne, George Will, and Paul Wolfowitz, among many others.

Considering the vast amount of pride right-wingers have in our military -- willing to indulge them the chance to do pretty much anything up to and including torture and murder -- you'd think that more of them would jump at the chance to serve; I suppose, like Dick Cheney, they simply "had other priorities". (Presumably, all the people who died in Vietnam also had other priorities.) Faced with the fact that they, who so studiously avoided serving, will likely be facing Democrats who did serve, modern-day Republicans have hit on a unique strategy: draw attention away from your own failure to fight by spewing a non-stop line of hawkish tough-guy talk, while getting privately funded PACs to attack your opponent's own spotless combat record. (See: Max Cleland, John Kerry, Jack Murtha.) Quite a message to send to those currently fighting in Iraq: stay on our side the rest of your lives, boys, or we'll fuck you up the ass the minute you open your mouth. Thanks, veterans!

(see also military career)

http://awolbush.com/whoserved.html

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