Corrente

By John Amato — May 31, 2005

I can accept Bush butchering Lincoln, but must He butcher Eisenhower?

Granted, Bush's Veteran's Day speech wasn't the weird travesty that His D-Day speech was—but still..

Here's the Eisenhower quote in context:

At a distance, their headstones look alike. Yet every son or daughter, mom or dad who visits will always look first at one.General Eisenhower put it well in 1944, when he wrote his wife, Mamie, about "the homes that must sacrifice their best." The families who come here have sacrificed someone precious and irreplaceable in their lives -- and our nation will always honor them.
(via Whited Sepulchre House transcript)

Standard issue Bush bathos and fakery, you think? No. Here's the whole quote from Eisenhower; I've crossed out the parts that Bush left out, for vividness:

How I wish this cruel business of war could be completed quickly. Entirely aside from longing to return to you it is a terribly sad business to total up the casualties each day even in an air war and to realize how many youngsters are gone forever. A man must develop a veneer of callousness that lets him consider such things dispassionately; but he can never escape a recognition of the fact that back home the news brings anguish and suffering to families all over the country. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and friends must have a difficult time preserving any comforting philosophy and retaining any belief in the eternal rightness of things. War demands real toughness of fiber-not only in the soldiers that must endure, but in the homes that must sacrifice their best.
(via Women of Wars)

General Eisenhower put it well in 1944, when he wrote his wife, Mamie, about "the homes that must sacrifice their best." The families who come here have sacrificed someone precious and irreplaceable in their lives -- and our nation will always honor them.
(via Whited Sepulchre House transcript)

Standard issue Bush bathos and fakery, you think? No. Here's the whole quote from Eisenhower; I've crossed out the parts that Bush left out, for vividness:

How I wish this cruel business of war could be completed quickly. Entirely aside from longing to return to you it is a terribly sad business to total up the casualties each day even in an air war and to realize how many youngsters are gone forever. A man must develop a veneer of callousness that lets him consider such things dispassionately; but he can never escape a recognition of the fact that back home the news brings anguish and suffering to families all over the country. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and friends must have a difficult time preserving any comforting philosophy and retaining any belief in the eternal rightness of things. War demands real toughness of fiber-not only in the soldiers that must endure, but in the homes that must sacrifice their best.
(via Women of Wars)

Funny how Bush left out the arithmetic part ("total up the casualties"), the empathatic part ("the news brings anguish"), the longing for peace ("this cruel business"), and the challenge to faith ("a difficult time preserving any comforting philosophy.") Read on...

A liar and a coward Here's What's Left

Vice President Cheney on Larry King Live:

KING: Amnesty International condemns the United States. How do you react?

D. CHENEY: I don't take them seriously[.]

KING: Not at all?

D. CHENEY: No. I -- frankly, I was offended by it. I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world. Think about what we did in World War I, World War II, throughout the Cold War. Just in this administration, we've liberated 50 million people from the Taliban in Afghanistan and from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, two terribly oppressive regimes that slaughtered hundreds of thousands of their own people. Funny how Bush left out the arithmetic part ("total up the casualties"), the empathatic part ("the news brings anguish"), the longing for peace ("this cruel business"), and the challenge to faith ("a difficult time preserving any comforting philosophy.") Read on...