Prometheus 6   

Bush's arrival on aircraft carrier is a shameless photo op
05/02/2003 01:48 AM EDT

By DeWayne Wickham
Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

George W. Bush arrived on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday like a man returning from a combat mission.

… Never mind that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was seen hours earlier riding around Baghdad wearing a bullet-proof vest in an armored Humvee, or that a growing chorus of Iraqis have taken to the streets to chant "Americans go home," the president went to the aircraft carrier to proclaim that the war he launched to topple Saddam Hussein from power has made Iraq safe for democracy.

… Thirty-five years ago as his college deferment was about to expire, Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard. He was accepted into the unit despite recording "the lowest possible grade" on the pilot aptitude test, The Washington Post reported in 1999.

… Instead of going to Vietnam like hundreds of thousands of black and white young men of his generation who enlisted or were drafted into the military, Bush sat out the war at a National Guard base just a few miles from his home in Houston. On the application form for the National Guard Bush was asked if he wanted to go overseas. He checked the "do not volunteer" box, according to The Washington Post story.

… Instead of pointing out the difference between George Bush-the-warrior-president and George Bush-the-draft-avoider, much of the nation's media covered the president's arrival on the Lincoln as if he were the linear successor to Attila the Hun.

That's a shame.

And it's also an insult to the brave men and women who went to war in Iraq.