Thursday, November 02, 2006

A MILITARY FAMILY PERSPECTIVE ON JOHN KERRY, ET AL

A very good read. Sent to me by our friend, Jim Stoll.

By Frank Schaeffer

John Kerry disrespected our troops by saying they get sent to Iraq because they don't study hard. George Bush attacked Kerry for calling the troops dumb and told us again how great he thinks our troops are. Meanwhile Senator Hillary Clinton called for a "fundamental change in course" in Iraq. All these politicians have something in common: none have a child in uniform.

As the father of a Marine that served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and as a writer of many books and articles on the military family (including "Keeping Faith A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" and my new book "BABY JACK," about redemption through service and many op-eds for the Washington Post), I've heard from more military families than just about anyone in this country. And the military family is sick of our leaders!

With a few exceptions like John McCain and James Webb, who have sons serving, our leaders talk about service but make sure their children are on a fast track of academic and material success uninterrupted by something so mundane as risking anything for our country. So Bush just "loves" our soldiers, but apparently he never imparted that love where it counts: to his own children. And Kerry also just "loves" our troops and is outraged by those terrible Republicans that would twist his remarks for political purposes, but he never inspired his kids to serve either. And Hillary Clinton has pictures taken of herself standing next to the troops, but her daughter isn't one of them.

Franklin Roosevelt led a wartime military in which his children were all serving. One of the things the Roosevelts shared with the military family they led was personal anxiety about their children in uniform. In her diary Eleanor wrote: "[Franklin] would have liked to have taken [his] son's places." Our museums are filled with portraits of the scions of leading families who led fateful charges, all of whom did their part. A lot has changed since our elites encouraged their children to serve as something that many American just did.

Today, the number of Congressmen and Congresswomen who are veterans is about one-third the figure it was a generation ago, and almost none have children in uniform, and where, in the 1950s, about half the graduating classes of the Ivy Leagues served, today less than one third of one percent do. Our elites have turned their back on America, but they still claim the privilege of leadership, only now it's leadership without dues-paying. (Barack Obama is considering a run for "Commander in Chief" and his best "qualification" was that he was on Oprah!)

They aren't fooling us. Here is a letter from a military parent that represents literally thousands I've received: "In a time when all my neighbors, in an affluent and very Republican district, sport 'support the troops' bumper stickers on their cars, you see no blue star emblems in the windows of their homes signifying a son or daughter serving . . . I feel we have been duped by cunning political opportunists . . . They talk the talk but do not walk the walk..."

Democrats and Republicans in Washington, leading liberals and conservatives and neoconservatives, the consultants, the lobbyists, the publishers, the talking heads, all have something in common: Almost none of them, have a picture on their desk of their son or daughter in uniform. The people who do the loudest talking and the most deciding about the fate of our sons and daughters aren't connected to the military family. We in the military family don't really give a damn what Kerry said or didn't say. (Though his excuse that his vile comment was a "joke" is lame, no better than saying a racist remark was "only a joke.")

What we do long for is leaders who can look the American people---and especially the military family---in the face and call for sacrifice. But they can't do that credibly any longer. They have no skin in the game. To the military family our elite look more and more like Persian pontentates, not democratic leaders sharing the fate of those they lead.

In the closing days of this election here is a request from the military family to our leaders: Please stop abusing our sons and daughters as political cannon fodder. Unless you have a child in uniform standing shoulder-to-shoulder with ours please just shut the hell up about how you "feel" about those who serve!

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