Herbert: Blood Runs Red, Not Blue (Privileged should be doing some dying)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/opinion/18herbert.html?pagewanted=print

<snip>

If Mr. Bush were willing to do something he has refused to do so far - speak plainly and honestly to the American people about this war - he might be able to explain why U.S. troops should continue with an effort that is, in large part at least, benefiting Iraqi factions that are murderous, corrupt and terminally hostile to women. If by some chance he could make that case, the next appropriate step would be to ask all Americans to do their part for the war effort.

College kids in the U.S. are playing video games and looking forward to frat parties while their less fortunate peers are rattling around like moving targets in Baghdad and Mosul, trying to dodge improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.

There is something very, very wrong with this picture.

If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.

If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.

[katsy]

1. Excellent Article.

I'm sure the privileged among us just don't give a damn about the troops as long as those troops don't include their children.

This point has been made so many times... in so many ways... by so many people.

If the privileged had an ounce of conscious, decency or honor, this accusation would never have to be made.

Recommended for Greatest.

[whistle]

2. History tells us that to be part of the privileged class means...

...exemption from dying and shedding of blood. That doesn't mean that those who are in fact privileged won't choose to run the risk of fighting for honor and love of country. However that would be by choice and no one from the privileged class in the past 45 years has been ever coerced into taking a military role that puts them at full risk. As for other classes in America the choices are far more limited and usually they are expected to take what is handed to them without objection.

John Kerry and his role in Vietnam verse shrub and his AWOL exercises without penalty, for example. Of the 53,000 plus names on the granite wall Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, we have no real way of knowing how many are from the privileged classes and how many are form all other classes but my guess would be the the propositions to numbers from their respective classes are not in balance. Just my humble opinion and if I am wrong, then I stand corrected upon presentation of the facts.

[mntleo2]

5. It Was A Bit Different During Viet Nam

There was a draft and if Daddy or Mummy could get you out of it, then you avoided a lot, but some, like Kerry went anyway. I am not that thrilled with Kerry as a politician, but I will say I deeply admire him for going when he could have gotten out of it, since he was part of much the same class as Bush.

I was against the war in Viet Nam, but I saw a lot of the lower class helpless against the draft. They also had parents who told them they would be disowned if they did not go, since Dad was often a WWII vet and did not understand that Viet Nam was a different war. I respected that some of my generation had no choice. There still is no choice, the difference is that sometimes the military gives people a way out of life long poverty in exchange for schooling ~ if you are not maimed or killed first.

I guess one thing my generation had that the ones before us did not, is that we knew for a fact this country has done some very terrible things and lied about it. We lived it. We saw it. It is a whole different thing when there is a draft and you know you are forced into fighting for a lie. I will agree with Conyers on this, at the very least if there were a draft, it would force these deadbeat flag wavers to scramble to get out of it ~ and then maybe they wouldn't be so shrill for this senseless crap.

My two cents

Cat In Seattle

[Bozita]

3. Bernie Ward read this column onair at KGO about 30 min ago

[BlueEyedSon]

4. "the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying"

What is this guy, some kind of communist?

[TomClash]

9. Nope

He's an old Kennedy Democrat.

[BlueEyedSon]

11. i forgot this smiley

:sarcasm:

[TomClash]

16. Didn't think you were serious

:)

[phantom power]

6. The Privileged aren't even willing to pay taxes. Forget about dying.

[texpatriot2004]

7. That's the truth! n/t

[classysassy]

8. The golden rule

"Remember the golden rule,those with the gold make the rules."

[checks-n-balances]

10. They're sacrificing nothing, so in 2 ways they're the 'undeserving rich'

1. They get away with a legal form of "tax evasion" while sticking the tax burden to the poor & middle class

2. They've done NOTHING to earn them. At least they could sacrifice something for their country for the big tax cut gift they've been handed. They could turn around and return the money to provide the troops with neede armor, pay, & benefits.

Better yet, they could go fight the war themselves, or send the recipients of their tax cuts (their children) to do it.

OF COURSE it won't happen, but we should be bringing this possibility to whatever public dialogue exists within our "free press."

[mzteris]

12. I just wrote

Mr. Herbert thanking him for writing this article. What an excellent piece.

[Burried News]

15. I just wrote him a 'thanks' as well. Long overdue.

[mzteris]

13. He wrote back!

Wow. I never thought he'd actually respond. Could be he gets so much hate mail he just appreciated a supportive one? Maybe he'd appreciate more....... (just a suggestion :) )

BTW - I mentioned DU in my letter to him - something to the effect that Democratic Underground oftens talks about the fact that those who "support" the war - rarely support with their service/lives.

[Burried News]

14. Another in a string of excellent articles from Herbert.

Much appreciated Mr. Herbert.

[NewJeffCT]

17. Lowell Weicker from last week

Last week, liberal former Republican Lowell Weicker (who won his first seat in Congress by running as an anti-Vietnam War Republican in 1968) was on the radio in Hartford, CT and said that if you really wanted to see support for the war in Iraq drop, and Bush's rating as well, you'd bring back the draft.

He said right now, most of the people dying over there are poor minorities from the inner cities & poor rural kids, and if you raised the stakes and had the middle & upper class kids being threatened with being sent over there, then you'd see support for Bush & Iraq at historically low levels...