"President Bush: We Owe This Man!"

www.Chronwatch.com ^ | April 14, 2003 | Fernando Oaxaca

[TCSparkman]

"President Bush: We Owe This Man!"

Posted by Fernando Oaxaca Monday, April 14, 2003

It is Day 23 of Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began on Thursday evening, March 20, 2003. Less than three weeks have sped by since the ''Decapitation Strike'' of bunker-buster bombs dropped from an American B-1 flying over Baghdad, guided to a building where Saddam Hussein, his sons, and other Iraqi leaders were supposedly meeting. The resulting Iraqi casualties of that night attack are not known yet, but the violent overthrow of Saddam¹s Iraqi Regime soon followed. Today that regime change is viewed as a good thing by eight out of ten Americans.

''What happened in the last three weeks is unprecedented in military history,'' says Dr. Victor David Hanson, the distinguished CSU Fresno professor of classics and history, writing today in ''National Review Online.'' Perhaps just as unprecedented has been the indomitable leadership of President George W. Bush and the brilliance in planning the war by his military and civilian team. Not unprecedented but almost taken for granted, however, has been the incredible courage, the professional excellence, the unexpected maturity and the continuing high morale of the armed forces of the United States, so heavily made up of barely post-teen volunteers! And, they seem to idolize their commander-in-chief.

Perhaps an unquestionable indicator of this impressive and uncommon melding of presidential leadership with youthful dedication to a difficult task is found on today¹s front page of the usually less than supportive New York Times. An article describes how an American tank shell killed two allegedly civilian Iraqis in an unidentified car speeding towards the American vehicle (only days after the suicide bombing which killed 4 GI¹s in Najaf). It then reports the anguish of Army Cpl. Jeff Mager, 22, the gunner on that Abrams tank crew, as he recounted the incident to the Times reporter

The Times notes but does not comment on Corporal Mager¹s Abrams gun turret which carried the words, ''Bush and Co.!'' What a clear demonstration of the bond between American GI¹s doing the nasty scut work in this far-away conflict and their commander-in-chief, President Bush, thousands of miles away giving the toughest, major commands. As the ''Bush and Co.'' sign speaks to us, we have also seen evidence of that bond in his tear-glistened eyes and near-cracking voice when speaking on TV of, or to, the individuals in armed service. He comes through so obviously reminded of the unavoidable cost in the lives and wounding of young, fighting Americans in armed conflict. To the cynical few, this may sound maudlin.

But, like almost all Americans, the President is not immune to the feelings of anguish and irreversible loss in the pit of our stomach when the dreaded statistics of combat deaths are made known. As one reviews the names and ages of the dead released by the Department of Defense, it is the number in their early twenties and late teens that tear at the heart and forcefully remind us of the price of freedom and what grief so many parents must be enduring.

Yesterday, accompanied by First Lady Laura Bush, Mr. Bush passed out Purple Heart Medals to wounded Marines and soldiers at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. Afterwards, when he made short remarks to the few press people there, one could not miss his apparently grayer hair and what seemed like new lines around his non-TV-prepped eyes, giving dramatic evidence of how the President too has suffered from the burden he carries as he has led, and leads in this Iraq War.

America owes this man. And like it or not, the world owes this man. Convinced of the seriousness of the dangers our nation and others face, smashed into our senses by 9/11, President Bush has been leading a war on apathy and self-interest not just here in the United States but abroad. His graying hair is not solely from age. It is from dealing with great patience and an incredible stick-to-itiveness as he has driven an American public, previously glued to TV re-runs of ''Friends'' or new ''Survivor'' episodes, to recognize that suicide-bombers in North Hollywood or Long Island are not impossible. His graying is also from searching for national unity on dealing with the menace of Saddam Hussein. It comes from not exercising his better judgment, giving way to needless acquiescence to his unyielding critics, appealing for support and being summarily rejected by ex-KGB honcho, Vladimir Putin, or greedy duo Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder or perhaps more painfully, finding no help from formerly reliable amigo Vicente Fox.

Read the entire article at http://www.chronwatch.com/featured/contentDisplay.asp?aid=2273

[madison10]

We "owe" him the respect he has earned, Mr. Pendulum. :)

[livius]

And like it or not, the world owes this man.

They do, and I think they know it, and that's one of the reasons the left among them is so infuriated.

I'm not a "Bushie" because I don't really like the idea of the presidency being turned into a cult of personality. But now I have to say that I think he is probably a great president, and will be one of those in the Washington-Jefferson-Lincoln-Roosevelt league.

By the way, Lincoln was also ridiculed from the very start, and hated by many during his presidency.

[Gritty]

Great article.

If anybody skipped over reading the entire article on the link, please go back and take the time to read the entire thing. You won't be sorry!

[CyberAnt]

Please ... no nightmare scenarios!

Gore has already said he would not have gone to war. Because he has said that, I am convinced, there would already have been another 9/11.

[Yankee]

Uh...what exactly do we owe him? He's doing the job we hired him to do.

He does it correctly....the way it's supposed to be done. Do we owe him extra because the eight years prior to him were a disaster.

I'll thank him, profusely...but I.... don't owe him a damn thing for doing things that are supposed to be done.

Wow. Tough crowd!

We'll just mark you down as "undecided", OK?

[Wolfstar]

Given the audacious, brazen quality of the 9/11 attacks and the simultaneous anthrax attacks, without a president who took the decisive action George W. has taken, your life (and the lives of all Americans) would be in grave danger today. Although we can never know for certain, it is entirely possible that Dubya has saved your life, and mine, and many thousands more.

In addition, even though the economy has still not turned the corner into strong growth, it is growing. Just a year and a half ago, it was literally at a standstill in the wake of 9/11. Dubya rallied us, encouraged us, kept us together, kept us focused on our own daily lives while he and his administration worried about the war radical Islamists declared on us.

Yes, the President is doing the job we hired him to do. But there is a vast distinction between just doing a job and doing it magnificently. At the very least, we owe him loyalty and respect. Your post tells me you are incapable of either.

[Republic]

His burden is much greater than yours or mine. He has done, imho, the HARD thing. Taken the tough road. And lifted this nation beyond measure. For sure he is doing his job, and for sure he is doing it in an exceptional manner. And for sure, this FReeper owes him deeply for this. Perhaps you don't-whatever. I found your post totally cold.