An Act Of Atonement

I wonder what George W. Bush will do today in honor of our troops who have fallen in his Iraq War?

I mean, I know he gave them some phony baloney pep talk as part of Operation Use Our Military People For Props In Unending Photo Ops, and talked about how great it was that al Zarqawi is dead.

But is that it?

Approximately 2,539 of our troops have been killed since May 2003 when combat operations supposedly ended…and that’s it?

Except for the valor of our military caught in this hellacious nightmare, NOTHING about this war has been honorable. Not the rationale, not the plan (we had one?), and certainly not the result.

Nothing.

And I never cared about the fact that Saddam Hussein was a mean, rotten guy who victimized his own people. It was never proven to me at any time that he could actually attack us (Israel is another story, but as far as I was concerned, that was their problem). And despite all of the saber rattling about Iraq in 2002, Iraq’s neighbors were absolutely silent, which I took as a sign that something dirty was afoot.

I realize it’s pointless to rehash all of this, because we are where we are and we can’t go back and change history. But I feel I have to mention this because of my utter disgust at watching President Stupid Head slather birthday cake all over his mug while our people continue to be killed for his illegal war.

We have all been forced to watch George W. Bush on the grand stage since November 2000, and we know him by now. He is a total intellectual lightweight who, among other things, is apparently incapable of empathy, remorse, or contrition.

So with this in mind, I have an idea.

I would like to see the establishment of a special college scholarship fund for the sons and daughters of our troops who have been killed in action called the July 6th Fund as a gesture by Dubya towards the bereaved families. You would think that the business friends of Bush and Cheney would support something like this, seeing as how they have benefited so magnificently because of all of the tax cuts and legislation that has been passed under the watch of the Repugs that has so thoroughly lined their pockets.

I mean, you would think so, right? But I suppose this “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch would resist because they would have a hard time seeing how they would benefit from it.

Still, I’m proposing this, and doing so in the name of the following service people:

- U.S. Army Sergeant David B. Parson, 1-37th Armored Battalion, 1st Armored Division
- U.S. Army Specialist Jeffrey M. Wershow, National Guard, 2-124th Infantry, 1st Armored Division
- U.S. Marine Private 1st Class Rodricka Antwan Youmans, 2nd Light Armored RECON Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
- U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Scott Eugene Dougherty, 2nd Light Armored RECON Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
- U.S. Marine Corporal Jeffrey D. Lawrence, 2nd Light Armored RECON Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
- U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Justin T. Hunt, 2nd Light Armored RECON Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force

All of these men were killed on Bush's birthday (in 2003 and 2004).

I think this is a small goodwill gesture of sorts showing that our troops should be always in our prayers and thoughts, in particular as we celebrate joyous occasions in which they are unable to participate because they have bravely answered the call to serve and defend us (especially given the fact that it is summertime now, but the livin’ is in no way easy for them).

I’m pretty much just shouting this out into the Internet wilderness, I guess, but I think it’s better than keeping this to myself. Let’s see if anything comes of it.

And by the way, this post was prompted also by what I consider to be Bush's insulting attitude towards our casualties as shown in this story, in particular this excerpt:

When Stars and Stripes nabbed an exclusive interview with President Bush on July 4 -- aboard Air Force One -- it devoted most of the questions to ones submitted by service members.

One, put to the commander-in-chief by the newspaper's Jeff Schogol: Has he attended even one funeral for a fallen soldier from Iraq? No, he replied. “Because which funeral do you go to? In my judgment, I think if I go to one I should go to all. How do you honor one person but not another?” he said.

Since you have been so derelect in this duty as commander-in-chief, Dubya, you can begin to make amends by acting on the suggestion I posted above.

Update: I sent an Email to Steph Odell at Patrick Murphy's campaign about this just to get some feedback and try to generate some "buzz." I'll keep updating this if anything else happens.