Memorial to Morality
George W. Bush spoke again today about sacrifice. Once again, his grandiloquent words referred to the only group of Americans who have been asked to make sacrifices in the “war on terror.” Memorial Day, of course, is a day for presidential rhetoric. It should be. Words about war, even conflicts that are just and fought of necessity, leave a bitter aftertaste. George Bush’s words today leave something more poisonous:
They know that one day this war will end — as all wars do. Our duty is to ensure that its outcome justifies the sacrifices made by those who fought and died in it. From their deaths must come a world where the cruel dreams of tyrants and terrorists are frustrated and foiled.
The outcome so far, Mr. Bush, has fulfilled those cruel dreams of terrorists. You’ve given them what they wanted. And while you were spinning about soldiers dying for reasons other than recklessness, arrogance and deceit, your vice president didn’t even try to sound statesmanlike as he talked to live soldiers who might be sent to die. In a single sentence, Mr. Cheney cynically and obscenely degraded the principles for which countless American soldiers have died in so many wars, principles that separated them - and us - from our enemies. Giving the commencement address at West Point on Saturday, Cheney ridiculed the idea of upholding our own values as we fight.
Capture one of these killers, and he’ll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States. Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away.
Your sensibilities, Mr. Vice President, and those of the president, fell away a long time ago, and our country - not the enemy - is paying the price.