Johnny Got His Gun - But Georgie and Dickie Hid Under The Bed

(From Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, 1939):

"You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor.... "

"So did all those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and stripes forever? "

"You're goddamn right they didn't."

"They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child. They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important. They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live."
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Most of the insiders in the Bush administration, those who deliberately lied to the public to get support for the U.S. military to attack Iraq, most of the cheerleaders and the decisionmakers, those who just love this war, those who ridicule and demean young men who do not join up to die, to lose limbs, to be sent far away, all the insiders, Bush, Cheney, their cheerleading squad, those in Congress who love this war, those who have made hundreds of millions of dollars from this war and will make billions from the oil that will be stolen, those people for the most part ducked service when it was their turn, they avoided the draft, they used connections and contacts to hide out and let some son of the working classes go to Vietnam and die in their place.

Starting of course with George W. Bush who avoided being sent to Vietnam by his father using his connections to get George into the "champagne unit" of the national guard. And George made double sure he would never serve by writing into his military papers that he did not want to have to be sent outside of Texas. I wonder if he wrote that he was a drinker, not a fighter.

And Five-Deferment Dick Cheney hid behind his wife, and darned he just couldn't make it to serve, going back time and time and time again (five times) to get his obligation to serve "put over" because of the imperative nature of him finishing some undergraduate classes he was taking. Probably "Stealing Somebody Else's Oil For Profit, 1A."

As Dalton Trumbo said almost 70 years ago, a lot of big-mouths in politics and in religion scream for war, but it's not them who goes and does the fighting and does the dying. It's working kids, kids from normal families.

And here are some of the other supposedly pro-war Bush people who avoided military service when it was their turn, but have cheered sending other young men off to die:

Bush Supporters Who Ducked Military Service
John Ashcroft
Roy Blunt
John Bolton
Jeb Bush
Andrew Card
Saxby Chambliss (Ducked military service, then attacked Max Cleland's patriotism)
Tom DeLay
David Drier
Douglas Feith
Bill Frist
Newt Gingrich
Rudy Guiliani
Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer
Phil Gramm
Dennis Hastert
Jack Kemp: Did not serve. "Knee problem," but continued in NFL for 8 years
Joe Lieberman (who never saw a middle eastern war he didn't want somebody else's kid to fight).
Trent Lott
Mitch McConnell
George Pataki
Richard Perle
Dana Rohrabacher
Mitt Romney
Karl Rove
Rick Santorum
Richard Shelby
Fred Thompson
Paul Wolfowitz

The Cheerleading Squad Who Ducked Military Service But Love Sending Other People's Kids To Die In Bush's Oil Wars:

Bill Bennett (aka The Gambler)
Pat Buchanan
Charlie Daniels
Lou Dobbs
Sean Hannity
Bill Kristol
Rush Limbaugh (aka The Fat Guy On The Radio)
Michael Medved
Ralph Reed
Michael Savage
Antonin Scalia (aka "Tony Don't Count The Votes")
Kenneth Starr (aka "Kenny I Love Dirty Stories")
Clarence Thomas (aka "Clare Don't Count The Votes")
George Will
Roger Ailes
Neil Bortz
Jerry Falwell