Letters from Vets

Ron and Bill and I are all veterans, so Veterans Day is something of a special occasion around here. After the truly awful display by the President yesterday, I had considered sitting down to pen a very long letter to George W. Bush about how I, as a veteran, feel about his leadership in the role of Commander-in-Chief. I was having a lot of trouble composing it, primarily because Ron doesn't like me posting too many entries which are composed of nothing but profanity and pictures of burnt bodies.

Fortunately for me, I visited fellow New Yorker and Veteran Bob Geiger at Yellow Dog Blog and found that he had already penned a far more eloquent set of remarks for Dubya than I was ever going to manage. It's a very nice letter, which I would encourage you to read in full. Here, however, is a short excerpt which I particularly enjoyed.

President Bush,

As our nation celebrates the contributions and sacrifices of America's Veterans today, I thought I would take the time to let you know how one Veteran feels about your commitment to our military and your true level of patriotism. After all, the Republican party smears anyone they oppose by questioning their support of the troops and their national loyalty so that's all fair game, right?

This issue is now so far beyond anything that we Veterans can argue about amongst ourselves, whether we be liberal Democrats or conservative Republicans. Because it is no longer a matter of political perspective or belief. Your administration invented intelligence - I believe "fixed" is the word the British used in the Downing Street Memos - and lied to the American people.

It is now an indisputable matter of fact that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no immediate way of attaining that capability. That didn't stop you, Vice President Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and anyone else you could get in front of a camera from lying about that contention which, at the very least, you had evidence to suggest might not be true. But then, we saw how much you listened to Ambassador Joe Wilson when he tried to set you straight, didn't we?

There's plenty more straight talking where that came from, so give it a look. As we have been documenting here for some time now, the cracks in the hull of the H.M.S. Bush are spreading faster and faster. The web of distortions and misdirection which were used to gin up support for the invasion of Iraq are becoming more and more clear. Democrats and progressives in Congress are standing up to the task of asking the hard questions and demanding answers. The press is awakening from their four year slumber and clicking on the kitchen light as the roaches scurry under the refrigerator.

To steal a line from the introduction to Morning Sedition on Air America Radio...

The revolution starts now.