Someone Has to Die

"You have to support the war,

because you're an American"

The New York Times reports on some of the sacrifice that President Bush is encouraging.

"I wouldn't have the energy to protest like her [Cindy Sheehan]," said Patricia Marsh of Omaha, whose daughter, Tricia Jameson, 34, a medic in the Army National Guard, died on July 14 when a bomb exploded near her ambulance. "Grieving wipes you out, it takes your life away. But even if I had the energy and I was against the war, I would think I was dishonoring what my daughter gave her life for. She believed she was doing a good thing."

"You have to support the war," Mrs. Marsh said, "because you're an American."

Patricia Marsh is in mourning for her daughter, who died in Iraq because George Bush wanted the political capital that comes with the title of "war president".

Reuters today reports that in his weekly radio address, President Bush called on Americans like Patricia Marsh for "more sacrifice".

"Our efforts in Iraq and the broader Middle East will require more time, more sacrifice and continued resolve," said Bush, who has spent most of August on vacation at his 1,600- acre (648-hectare) ranch.

Doesn't President Bush recognize the cognitive dissonance that his calls for sacrifice made while in the midst of a record breaking five week presidential vacation create for many Americans?

Maybe President Bush and his fellow Republicans don't care what people think as long as enough young Americans, like Tricia Jameson, are willing to sign up to fight their wars for them. Take the Republican Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney for example.

According to the Boston Herald, Mitt was asked if any of his five military age sons were planning on heeding George Bush's call for sacrifice.

"No, I have not urged my own children to enlist.I don't know the status of my childrens' potentially enlisting in the Guard and Reserve” Romney said, his voice tinged with anger."

Some Americans are starting to realize that when it comes to the demand for sacrifice, Republicans like Bush and Romney have a much easier time requesting it of others than then do looking to their own family and friends.

"Massachusetts residents can enlist in the National Guard up to age 39.Romney's five sons range in age from 24 to 35. Neither the Romney children nor the governor have served in the military, Romney spokeswoman Julie Teer said.

More than 1,100 guardsmen and women from Massachusetts are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, a guard spokeswoman said. According to federal statistics, 28 Massachusetts soldiers have been killed so far.

“I don't think you should be so ‘rah-rah' for a war that you aren't willing to send your own family members to,'' said Rose Gonzalez, 30, of Somerville, whose mother, a state employee, was deployed to Iraq in January.’ If he thinks the war is so just and so important and we shouldn't pull out, then he should encourage his own sons to go.”

Nancy Lessin, a spokeswoman for Military Families Speak Out, said if Romney aspires to be president he should consider the sacrifice made by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the father of four sons all of whom enlisted in World War II.

“This is just one more politician who is willing to risk the lives of our loved ones and celebrate sending them off into a war that we never should have in,'' Lessin said.

President Bush and his Republican enablers contend that the war on terror is the great struggle of the 21st Century. Bush describes it as the moral equivalent to World War II, yet neither he nor any Republican leader is willing to make any personal appeal to his or her own children to place themselves in the front lines of this great crusade.

Hat tip to Blue Mass. Group.