Bush talks up his non-existent war experience

November 10, 2007

During a visit to West Virginia in January 2002, Bush joked, “I’ve been to war. I’ve raised twins. If I had a choice, I’d rather go to war.” Of course, it wasn’t particularly funny, because Bush didn’t go to war. He had a chance to fight in one — a war he claimed to support — but Bush decided to let others go in his place.

This week, during an interview with German journalists, the president again cited a record that doesn’t really exist. (via D. Froomkin)

“I’ve committed our troops into harm’s way twice, and it’s not a pleasant experience because I understand the consequences firsthand.”

Well, not really. He may or may not understand the consequences, but unless he has some hidden war record we don’t know about, none of the president’s experiences are “firsthand.”

As Froomkin noted, “Bush, of course, has no combat experience. And sometimes he gives the impression that he doesn’t appreciate how removed he is from the horrors of war, and how different his situation is from those who bear the burden of his decisions. This would appear to be another such example.”

This is not to say, however, that Bush is unwilling to pick up arms and fight side-by-side with U.S. troops. It’s just that he prefers plastic to metal, and virtually reality to actual reality.

US President George W. Bush had a shoot-out with the “bad guys” in Iraq on Thursday, playing a computer game with war veterans that simulates a firefight in Baghdad, the White House said.

Bush tried his hand at the game with two soldiers during a visit to a rehabilitation center in Texas that treats veterans wounded in Iraq.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush helped “shoot the bad guys” in a Baghdad neighborhood, albeit virtually.

She said the president saw several “cutting edge virtual reality games” that allow recovering soldiers at the center in San Antonio to simulate riding in a car or boat.

No word on just how many “bad guys” Bush “shot.”

I wonder if the MSM is going to call Bush’s bluff on this one? Nothing like swiftboating a real veteran (Kerry – McCleland – etc) making fun of someone’s war record, and then pretending as if you went to that war as well. Does he really think that in his virtual reality, his AWOL record turns into veritable combat experience just by thinking it first and then repeating it enough so that the media clowns start believing it?

This should be pushed, especially with Republicans who actually did serve. OR… as Limbaugh has said before: phony soldier. Is Bush a phony now? (As if he wasn’t one already)

  • “I’ve committed our troops into harm’s way twice, and it’s not a pleasant experience because I understand the consequences firsthand.”

    This actually makes me a little nervous when I don the tin foil hat of dread:

    1. Someone is feeling a little Musharraf envy.
    2. Someone thinks that if he had a real military record he could be a real general, instead of a boring old CiC.
    3. Leaders of other “democracies” who are also generals get to arrest pesky activist judges and people who don’t do what they’re told.
    4. Someone thinks it would be swell if he could do the same thing.
    5. Someone is already hanging on to reality by one fingernail…

  • “I’ve committed our troops into harm’s way twice, and it’s not a pleasant experience because I understand the consequences firsthand.”

    Bush doesnt even understand the English language firsthand.

  • I wonder how much he’d love war if his daughters came home missing half a face, or a limb, or in a box? The man is the embodiment of modern evil.

  • “I’ve been to war. I’ve raised twins. If I had a choice, I’d rather go to war.”

    So Bush’s motto is make war not love. I guess twins in diapers could give a damn about his codpiece. What a blow to his ego. I’m sure this comment will make Jenna’s, not Jenna’s and the mother who gave birth to the twins day. Guess what George, I think you’re only friend left in the world IS Barney the dog.

  • “I’ve been to war. I’ve raised twins. If I had a choice, I’d rather go to war.”

    I cannot imagine why every single parent of a child who has actually been killed or maimed in Iraq would not be burning Bush in effigy on the National Mall as early as this afternoon and demanding his impeachment. What a stunningly callous thing to say. He has managed to outdo his looking for WMD under the couch cushions, and his mom’s post-Katrina “Astrodome is like a vacation” for sheer, unbelievable offensiveness to real human beings and their Bush-policy-torn families.

  • Bush has never allowed anyone to ask him the question about being AWOL during Nam…foreign journalists will not be allowed to ask either. We all know it but Bush will not allow the discussion and why dems never made a point of it is just beyond reason.

  • “I’ve committed our troops into harm’s way twice, and it’s not a pleasant experience because I understand the consequences firsthand.”

    I detest George Bush; I find him odious in every possible respect. If he had said he had “seen” the consequences first hand, I might give him a pass on this one. God knows he has seen maimed soldiers struggling to cope with grievous wounds, and he has met with grieving families. He has seen pictures of bombed-out Iraqi neighborhoods. Contrary to his protestations otherwise, I have no doubt that has seen polls indicating that America’s image in the world has declined. He has read intelligence estimates that report that our national security has deteriorated rather than improved due to the misadventure in Iraq. Oh yes, Bush has seen countless consequences of war. But I defy anyone to point where in his words or his deeds he proves that he understands those consequences. Understanding the consequences of combat is a far cry from understanding the experience of combat. Bush even fails to meet that much lower standard, and he obfuscates to imply that he somehow meets the much higher one. As I said he is odious.

    “I’ve been to war. I’ve raised twins. If I had a choice, I’d rather go to war.”

    Believe me, George, if I had a choice you’d be in theater and taking the point on every patrol.

  • The sheer arrogance of this evil entity is truly gauling. He was given a green light by my friends in the “conservative” movement, only to find him throw the constitution to the ground and decry it as ‘… a goddamn piece of paper’. The ability to conceptualize his frame of mind is beyond me(Thank God), I only fear that these same good people are being lured by Rudy Giuliani. He is of the same mold of jorge Bush, only on steroids.

    • Comments are closed.