In recent years, it’s often been assumed that the president could deliver a war-related speech on a military base and receive an enthusiastic response. It’s practically a foregone conclusion — men and women in uniform are going to give their commander in chief a boisterous response, especially when he’s trying to motivate them with encouraging words about their mission.
But have you noticed lately that this assumption isn’t quite what it used to be? From Reuters:
President George W. Bush admitted on Wednesday that Americans are weary of the Iraq war and defended his decision to send more troops to Iraq before a number of soldiers about to deploy there.
Dozens of camouflage-wearing troops sat quietly at their lunch tables, some joined by family members, as Bush spoke during a visit to this remote base in the high desert of California, where Iraqi-American actors train soldiers to understand Iraq’s cultural differences. […]
A number of the troops who listened quietly are from units about to rotate into service in Iraq.
This comes just a couple of months after the president appeared at Ft. Benning, where Bush was reportedly looking for a “friendly audience and a patriotic backdrop” to help sell his escalation policy. He didn’t get the reception he expected.
The New York Times said Bush “received a restrained response from soldiers who clapped politely but showed little of the wild enthusiasm that they ordinarily shower on the commander in chief.” The Washington Post noted that Bush received minimal applause, which was “hardly the boisterous, rock-star reception Bush typically gets at military bases. During his lunchtime speech, the soldiers were attentive but quiet. The LA Times said the president “received a less enthusiastic reception.” The far-right Washington Times said the troops’ response to the president was “tepid.”
The president’s support is down to about 30%. I get the sense that the troops and their families are with the other 70%.
Update: An alert reader reminds me of a report from a year ago.
The attacks against critics at military settings may have put troops in the awkward position of undermining their own regulations. A Department of Defense directive doesn’t allow service members in uniform to attend “partisan political events.”
Questions have been raised about the military’s attendance at events where Bush says something like “they spoke the truth then, they’re speaking politics now.” Several members of the military told FOX News that Bush is inviting the troops to take sides in a partisan debate in his speeches.
“This is a very bad sign,” said retired Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar, who led Central Command in the early 1990s and is an administration critic. “This is the sort of thing that you find in other countries where the military and political, certain political parties are aligned.” […]
“Where you have our uniformed members being put in a position where it looks like they’re rooting for one side or another is very disconcerting,” said Greg Noone, a former Navy lawyer.
Might this explain the less-than-enthusiastic response Bush received yesterday? Maybe, but I’m not convinced. Bush has appeared at dozens of war-related speeches on military bases, and he used to receive enthusiastic welcomes. Lately, we’re seeing less or that, and a) it’s unlikely Pentagon regulations are more important now than they were a few years ago; and b) that this is some kind of coincidence.