I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Salute! Then wave.

You know, I thought I blogged this last night.

Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, US Navy, SEAL Team Leader, was awarded (posthumously) the Congressional Medal of Honor yesterday. Under enemy fire, Lt. Murphy, already wounded, endangered himself to call in support by putting himself in the open so he could get a good signal. While requesting support he took and returned fire, eventually receiving the wound that killed him. From reports, at the end of his call he said, "Thank you," when he was told help was on the way.

'nough said.

The President then took this opportunity to demand Congress approve a $42 Billion supplimental to the just started new fiscal year to fund the war in Iraq.

'nough said.

And the only reason I put these two together is because the President, the person who makes the award presentation, put them together. Some people have timing, some have tact, others have propriety. Our President has none of these qualities.

4 comments:

Sam Butler said...

"Some people have timing, some have tact, others have propriety. Our President has none of these qualities."

Bullies generally don't.

Steve Buchheit said...

Sam, yep, knock 'em down and take their milk money, pay off friends. Don't need any of those three things.

Jim Wright said...

"Some people have timing, some have tact, others have propriety. Our President has none of these qualities."

Tact, timing, and propriety are for little people, Steve, not the Great Decider.

LT Murphy means nothing to GWB. Bush never actually served (I refuse to call his privileged little draft shelter stint in the Guard 'service'), he's never sacrificed, he's never actually led men by example in combat. Honor, duty, service, sacrifice, courage - these things baffle him. Murphy, Tillman, Lynch, and all the rest of us little people are nothing but a means to an end for GWB and his privileged sycophants. It completely escapes him what that medal means, I doubt he even knows it's significance, he certainly has no idea how disgraceful it was to make political demands during the award ceremony. I don't have much use for Bush Sr. either, but at least he was a combat officer who demonstrated courage, honor, and duty when it mattered - and had the medals to prove it - you'd think he'd knock some sense into the boy.

Steve Buchheit said...

Jim, to be fair to the little one, I don't think he made the request during the award event. However, I don't think there were separated by more than an hour. Some one, somewhere in the oval office, should have advised him to have waited at least a day, allowing a full news cycle to pass.

But I agree fully with your analysis. If it weren't for Jr.'s psychosis and need to prove something to his Dad, I don't think we'd be in such a mess. We might still be in Iraq (his advisors had a real hard on to go there), but I think it might have been done a little differently. Or at least we wouldn't keep getting these allusions to the "greatest generation" and how this fight in Iraq is our determining moment.

Only caught a part of a Frontline report the other night, that once we had gone into Iraq, Iran (who helped us greatly in Afghanistan, swinging the Northern Alliance to us, and telling them to step aside for Karzi) offered an agreement which included the nuclear program and concessions toward Israel, and we gave them the cold shoulder. If that's the case, this president and his advisors need to be reintroduced to the wood shed.