My Fellow Patriots, I know many of you have strong feelings on the subject of
President Bush's visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln, so I thought you might
appreciate CDR McIntyre's letter to Senator Byrd.
Senator Byrd,
As a retired Naval Officer, with two Gulf carrier deployments under my belt,
I find your criticism of President Bush's visit to the Lincoln offensive in
the extreme! This is the first time that
the Commander-in-Chief took time out of his schedule to pay a visit to thank
those who served in the line of fire, in a way that was both dramatic and
meaningful to those on the carrier.
Perhaps if LBJ got off his fat ass to do something similar,our troops' morale
in Vietnam might not have been so low.
As a Naval officer, I am extremely sensitive to styles of leadership.
That is, after all, our stock in trade. And it was not lost on me that the
President spent about thirty seconds shaking hands with the Admiral, CO, and CAG
(If you don't know these abbreviations just look them up in your Funk &
Wagnalls!) He then spent the next forty-five minutes putting himself at the
disposal of the people who make that ship work, the yellow shirts, the green shirts,
the purple shirts, the chiefs, the sailors.
If you don't know the significance of those colored shirts, look it up in
your Blue Jacket's Manual. Not dressed out in formal uniform (I understand at
Bush's request), but in their greasy, smelly, sweaty working uniforms ... working
a flight deck is hot, hard work. And yet he, in his flight suit, put himself
at their disposal, this was their moment for 19 or 20 something year old kids
a few years out of high school, to get a picture of themselves with the
President of the United States, his arm draped around their shoulder.
That is a moment that those kids never dreamed would ever happen to them,
maybe not even when they knew he was coming aboard. Surely, he would see the
brass, not the troops. But it was the troops to whom he gave his time ... and it
was the most natural moment in the world. You might have thought it was a
family reunion, and in a way, it was...
Bush is one of them, the common man, and while he is still the most powerful
man on the planet right now.
he hasn't lost his touch for them.
Was it a political moment?
What moment of a president's life is NOT a political moment? Was it grand
standing, to come in to an OK pass to a 4 wire, a bit high in close, correcting,
left of centerline? Well, hell, he didn't fly the approach anyway, though I
understand from the pilots who flew him that he did a pretty good job at
formation flying, tucked in close for a lead change. You can always tell a
fighter pilot, you just can't tell him very much. And apparently after thirty
years, it all comes back, with a little coaching, I am sure. Frankly, I would
have liked to see him come aboard in an FA-18, but the Secret Service vetoed
that, and Bush accepted their judgment ... again, a mark of a good leader.
If you had spent some time in the service, instead of the Klan,
you might understand the significance of that moment to all the men and women
aboard the Lincoln, and indeed to all the men and women in the service who
shared that moment vicariously. But you chose the bedsheet instead of the
uniform, and so you don't.
I am half-tempted to move to West Virginia just so I could vote against you
in your next election.
Lewis F. McIntyre
CDR, USN (Ret)
The Facts
The following appeared in a local paper as a letter to the editor.
Some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war. They complain about his prosecution of it. One person recently claimed Bush was the worst president in U.S. history. Let's clear up one point: We didn't start the war on terror. Try to remember. It was started by terrorists on 9/11 Let's look at the "worst" president and mismanagement claims.
FDR led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.
John F. Kennedy started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent. Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Lybia, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. We lost 600 soldiers, an average of 300 a year. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.
