AMY GOODMAN: Ian, finally, in the research for your book, Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and his Past, what you were most surprised by finding?
IAN WILLIAMS: I think my biggest surprise was to discover the way that George W. Bush is still wrapping himself in the flag and the uniform. At the time when I wrote that, one-third of his major policy statements had been on military bases. He loves wearing uniforms. You have seen the famous picture of him with his swelling cod piece on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the flight suit. He looks like a young kid with his first cowboy suit when he’s in uniform. He loves it. It’s obviously something deeply psychological. It's making up for the fact that he didn't do military service. He’s wrapped himself in the glory of a veteran and military. He is possibly the least qualified person, apart from Dick Cheney who didn't turn up at all, to do this. But it's very dangerous because he's playing to a streak in American life of not so much the military, but the people who see the military as a repository of republican values, of the one incorruptible part of American society. These people have very low regard for politicians, journalists, lawyers, but the military, they're the people who make sacrifices. He has wrapped himself in that. What he's saying now is ‘You cannot criticize my war in Iraq, because you're criticizing our military serving abroad, and I represent our military.’ I'm surprised by the number of times that he has called himself the commander-in-chief. He's always calling himself the commander-in-chief. A commander-in-chief that ignores the advice of his own military, leads us into a war that he declared was over 15 months ago when he landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was to announce it was an end to significant hostilities, it was mission accomplished. A lousy commander-in-chief on his current record, and he has no rights for the pretensions for the military on his past record.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/09/1358232AMY GOODMAN: What are your thoughts about David going to Iraq? What are your thoughts about the Iraq war?
GARY EARL ROSS: Okay, well -- how much time do you have? My thoughts about David going to Iraq -- I would feel better about it if President Bush's daughters were in Iraq. I would feel better about it if members of Congress had their children in uniform. I know the only reason he's in the army is the economic condition in Buffalo, and where his mother lives in Pennsylvania. She's on the faculty of Bucknell. The jobs are not plentiful, either, in Lewisburg, PA. So, he took the army, because it was his option. When he went to his boot camp graduation, I met many of his battle buddies, and the stories were pretty much the same. They were either children of color from urban areas who weren't able to find jobs, or they were white children from rural areas who weren't able to find jobs. One of his battle buddies said, well, where I'm from Kansas, there's not much going on, a lot of kids die in traffic accidents because drinking is the only thing we can do. Drinking and driving on a Saturday night. This is how we're stocking the military. What really bothered me the most -- and I wrote a short story it, which going to be in an anthology, and I don't have the title of the book -- the story is called “Battle Babies.” I was going to his boot camp graduation. I said, what do you want me to bring you? He said, gummy bears. He said gummy bears, You are getting a marksmanship medal and you want me to bring you gummy bear? He said, yes, and I realized that one of the biggest sins that the human race has visited upon itself is that it sends its babies out to fight its wars. So, I am feeling frightened, frustrated, and furious. I'm enraged. I would not have felt the same way if there were military action in Afghanistan, surgically designed not to go after civilian populations but go after Al Qaeda. I would have not felt the same way. But as I believe Richard Clark said, going after Iraq for 9/11 is like attacking Mexico for Pearl Harbor. It made no sense. I am astonished at the level of apathy and ineptitude among the population of the United States, people who will not read, who will not focus on the actual issues as they develop. George Bush is working on his Freudian difficulties, his dramas with his father, and we're all suffering for it. Now, I'm a son and I have sons. I know fathers and sons have issues. But most of us don't get to play out our Freudian issues on a world stage, and instead of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage how about a constitutional amendment that doesn't permit the sons of presidents to become presidents. Maybe then we might not have circumstances like this. If this war does anything, I hope that it wakes us up eventually to the ridiculousness of the idea of war as a means of peace. I understand that wars are sometimes necessary, but the idea of starting a war so that you can make a peace is patently ridiculous.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/10/1350220
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