Monday, August 15, 2005
The Rise Of The Anti-Military Right?
It doesn't sound crazy if you're actually paying attention, but there is a pervasive attitude among much of the conservative establishment that doesn't mind shitting on the military when it serves it's purposes, yellow ribbon stickers made in China notwithstanding...
Digby has a laundry list of recent GOP attacks on veterans (purple heart band-aids, "pukes", etc...) that seem like ample evidence of a growing resentment of the military on the right...
Digby misses a couple of salient points, though. First is the fact that Democrats have fought over the past several years to increase funding to the VA, while Republicans have allowed the VA's financial troubles to foment. Once the heat got too great, the GOP swooped in to add to the budget and take all the credit.
Second, even the formerly respectable Rudy Giuliani gladly stepped up last October to throw the troops under the bus (and cover Bush's ass) when a shitload of explosives went missing in Iraq.
It seems that a substantial (and influential) sect of the GOP (no, it's not the whole party) has a pretty well-defined charge for the American military:
Fight and die for us. Give Bush his photo-ops. Don't complain about it, and definitely don't run for office as a Democrat when you get home...
UPDATE: The beat goes on. Last night, at the site of Cindy Sheehan's protest in Crawford, a pickup truck plowed over white crosses meant to comemmorate soldiers that have died in Iraq. Very respectful...
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