Where Is The Shame?
August 27, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Where Is The Shame?
By BOB HERBERT
Max Cleland, minus the three limbs he lost in Vietnam, showed up in his
wheelchair outside
President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Wednesday to suggest that the
president take
the simple and decent step of condemning the slime that is being spread by
Bush supporters
against the war record of John Kerry.
He didn't get very far. The president was busy vacationing and had neither
the time nor
the inclination to meet with Mr. Cleland, a former U.S. senator who was
himself the target
of vicious, unconscionable attacks by the G.O.P. slime machine when he ran
for re-election
in Georgia in 2002.
Later, at a press conference under the hot Crawford sun, Mr. Cleland told
reporters: "The
question is, where is George Bush's honor? Where is his shame?"
Mr. Cleland reminded reporters of the scurrilous attacks by Bush forces
against Senator
John McCain in the Republican presidential primary in 2000 and said: "Keep
in mind, this
president has gone after three Vietnam veterans in four years. That's got
to stop."
In what is surely the most important election of the last half-century, we
seem trapped in
the politics of the madhouse. What is incredible is that these attacks on
men who served
not just honorably, but heroically, are coming from a hawkish party that
is controlled by
an astonishing number of men who sprinted as far from the front lines as
they could when
they were of fighting age and their country was at war.
Among them:
Mr. Bush himself, the nation's commander in chief and the biggest hawk of
all. He revels
in the accouterments of combat. The story was somewhat different when he
was 22 years old
and eligible for combat himself. He managed to get into the cushy confines
of the Texas
Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968 - a year in
which more than a
half-million American troops were in the war zone and more than 14,000
were killed.
The story gets murky after that. We know the future president breezed off
at some point to
work on a political campaign in Alabama, skipped a required flight
physical in 1972 and
was suspended from flying. He supported the war in Vietnam but was never
in any danger of
being sent there.
Vice President Dick Cheney, another fierce administration hawk. Mr. Cheney
asked for and
received five deferments when he was eligible for the draft. He told
senators at a
confirmation hearing in 1989, "I had other priorities in the 60's than
military service."
Many draft-age Americans had similar priorities - getting an education,
getting married
and starting a family.
Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is reported to have said, "I would have
served, if
asked." But with the war raging in Vietnam, he received six student
deferments and an
"occupational deferment" based on the essential nature of a civilian job
at Southwest
Missouri State University - teaching business law to undergraduates.
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary and a fanatical hawk on Iraq.
He was not
fanatical about Vietnam and escaped the draft with student deferments.
There are many others.
I would like to see at least some of these men, in keeping with their
positions as leaders
of a great nation, stand up and say it is wrong - just wrong - to try and
reap a cheap
political gain by defacing the sacrifices of individuals like John Kerry,
John McCain and
Max Cleland, who put themselves in mortal danger in the service of their
country.
It's one thing to decline to serve. It's quite another to throw mud at
those who did serve
- or to remain silent as allies hurl the mud.
I've interviewed several soldiers and marines who have suffered grave
wounds in Iraq,
including the loss of limbs. A permanent place of honor should be reserved
for them in the
pantheon of American heroes. The idea that someone some years from now may
trash their
service for political gain is beyond disgusting.
George W. Bush ought to call off his dogs. The one thing we ought to be
able to do in this
hyperpoliticized era is rally in a bipartisan way behind those who have
been willing to
fight our wars.
The privileged classes no longer feel an obligation to put their lives -
or their
children's lives - on the line in defense of the nation. The very least
they could do is
insist that those who have put themselves in harm's way be treated with
respect.
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