Hiding Behind the Sacrifices of Others

Something that has bothered me of late in politics is the tendency of pro-war people to hide behind the service of others as immunization from criticism. I was reading The Charleston Daily-Mail recently, and there was an article about the efforts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to criticize Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) for her terrible record on veterans' issues. The key examples listed were her votes with the President on the budgets for the Department of Veterans Affairs that were based on faulty assumptions about the number of veterans who would need service and ultimately led to an increase in the annual out-of-pocket costs of the VA Hospital from $24 before she entered office to $430, as well as her vote an a 2003 amendment to the emergency appropriations for the Iraq War that would have given a $1500 bonus to every veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, in a vote that failed 213-213. The Daily-Mail defended Capito by pointing out that the $230 million for the bonus would have come at the cost of the rest of the military funds (even though $8.8 billion have been "lost" by defense contractors such as Halliburton with nary a peep from Congressional Republicans), at which point Capito said that as a daughter of a World War II veteran with a Purple Heart that she is insulted that people would think that she could oppose it.

Well, just as someone else's bravery doesn't automatically make anyone else more brave (although admittedly it may inspire acts of bravery), hiding behind veterans doesn't make anyone more patriotic. (Then again, if she is playing this card, does that automatically make her a crook?) Another example of this is that horrible Toby Keith song, "The Angry American (Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue)." If you are one of the lucky ones who hasn't had the misfortune of listening to this tripe, it is the song where Toby confuses putting boots up people's asses with the Constitution. That being said, the lyric that irritates me the most in this lyric is the following:

My daddy served in the Army where he lost his right eye

Well, Toby, you're a big strapping young man. Why didn't you serve in the Army? Or the Air Force? Or the Navy? Or the Marines? It's like VH1 said in the countdown of the 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs... Ever, "Toby Keith was so moved by the attacks of September 11th that he joined the Army. No, wait. He wrote a song." Hey, my dad served in the Air Force, his dad and his dad served in the Army, so if that's the case, do I get bonus points, too.

However, the biggest example of hiding behind the patriotism of others comes from the Decider himself, who always insists that criticizing his time in the Texas Air National Guard is an insult to all of those who carry such a heavy burden in today's military while in the National Guard. However, there were huge differences. By the time I enlisted in 2000, there was no longer the option to say that one didn't want to be considered for overseas service, an option that George W. Bush took advantage of in 1968. The National Guard made up a small portion of the force in Vietnam, while today, the reserve components account for fully one-third of the troops in Iraq. Finally, I don't know of too many people who have done so much to undermine the treatment of our veterans than George W. Bush.

Patriotism is not something that someone else does, it is something that each individual does for the greater good. If someone wants to really support the troops, first they should do no harm when it comes to benefits after we get home. Second, and perhaps most important, don't send us into unnecessary and unjust wars in the first place. Ask the hard questions, and demand that our military gets all of the equipment needed for the job. My service in the National Guard does not make George W. Bush's any more noble, and Shelley Moore Capito should stop hiding behind her father's wounds when she talks about what she has and has not done for veterans.