President Bush Calls War “Romantic”

President Bush seems to have changed a bit since his days essentially dodging the draft for Vietnam. The Huffington Post reports that he recently said that fighting in Afganistan is “in some ways romantic.”

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

There isn’t too much to say to that. Bush seems to fancy himself a general for toy soldiers. In reality, he has somehow become the commander-in-chief of a real army made of real men. In response, I would like to remind people of Wilfred Owen’s poem “Dulce et Decorum Est.” Here is the end of the poem.

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Bush has not been to war. When he knew that his name would soon be called and it would soon be his time to serve, he ran. Now, he says that he sees a good fight that he would be glad to take part in.

No. He doesn’t. He sees a game that he would like to play, and he wants more toy soldiers so that he can keep playing. War is not romantic, and it seems an insult to the brave men and women of the armed services to suggest that it is anything but hard gruesome work which should be avoided.