Do not miss today’s op-ed essay in the New York Times by John Roberts, a Reagan aide in the early ’80s, on the Bush White House’s failure to attend memorial services for troops killed in the Middle East.
After recalling personal experiences preparing similar services for Reagan, Roberts explained the importance of these services and the mistake this White House is making by ignoring them.
“There has been considerable discussion recently about whether President Bush has done enough to honor the lives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Roberts said. “While the president writes letters to the families of soldiers who have been killed and meets privately with them at military bases, he has not attended an open memorial or a military service. That’s a mistake.
“….The commander in chief should publicly honor the individual lives sacrificed in war. He should show his respect in front of the television cameras. A nation is a community, and the lives that are lost belong not just to their families, but to us all. As the only political figure who represents the whole nation, the duty of commemorating these deaths belongs uniquely to the president.
“As a fellow Republican, I would also offer Karl Rove some friendly political advice. Skipping memorial services makes the president look weak. It creates the impression that he values his own political standing above the lost lives of servicemen and women. Avoiding the grieving families invites demagoguery because so many of our professional soldiers come from the middle and lower classes of American society, and not the president’s own privileged social class. With an election approaching, presenting the picture of a president who has time for fundraisers but not for military funerals would be an egregious mistake.
“Finally, there is an asymmetry to the administration’s use of the military in presidential events. It is wrong to bask publicly in glory on the deck of an aircraft carrier unless you are also willing to grieve openly for fallen soldiers. You can’t wrap yourself in the flag while avoiding flag-draped coffins.”
Well put. I think Bush believes strongly in the notion of constant positive spin. Bush is so desperate for the American people to believe that his policies in the Middle East are working, he is going to great lengths to avoid any events that may contribute to the notion of failure. Not only is this misguided, it’s insulting.
Consider, for example, that last month we learned that the Bush White House quietly decided to ban “news coverage and photography of dead soldiers’ homecomings on all military bases,” as the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank reported.
Bush seems to believe that we, as a people, are so fragile that we cannot stand the sight of a military funeral — or even a military casket — without causing a dip in his poll numbers. How very sad.
And, following on a point that Roberts raised in his essay, it’s not as if Bush can claim to be too busy to attend memorial services for the troops. As the Progress Report noted today, “Since the war started, President Bush has attended a total of 36 fundraisers for his political campaign – and not one funeral for fallen soldiers in Iraq.”