leaders and Leaders

Some days the enormity of the debacle that was George Bush's presidency is overwhelming. But just as Obama has given us hope there are others like him, true leaders. Some are in the military.
We sometimes forget that our generals cannot decide what wars to fight, or when. That would be a military dictatorship. Rather, they must do as they are instructed the best they can, as McArthur said, "As God gives them the light to see it."
Many of us hated and despised this war in Iraq. We correctly saw that it was a fruitless, colonial adventure with lies as it's rationale. But no one, or at least no one I know, ever blamed our military. It was clear they were trying to do the best they could. As they said about the British army in World War I: They are "Lions led by donkeys."
One factoid of this war has always stood out to me. When our marines knocked down that statue of Sadaam Hussein, it was reported that they first wrapped an American flag around the statue's head. That particular flag had flown over the World Trade Center. These Marines were fueled by the fury of revenge.
Reading this, my heart sank. These poor bastards are over there fighting, killing and dying with every ounce of strength and bravery they have. They were told, these are the people who attacked us. And this is payback. Problem is, none of it was true. There was no connection. There was no meeting in Prague. There was no Al Qaida in Iraq. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Muslim world knew that this never made any sense. But we are insulated from world facts over here. We didn't know. Or at least those boys didn't know.
But all this is old news. No need to rehash it. I bring it up just to illustrate this point:The way to honor our troops is to give them an honorable mission, and to honor them by being truthful.
An extraordinary juxtaposition brings this to mind today, two items from the blogosphere.
BlueGirl on the blog, Theygaveusarepublic.com cites a piece from Stars & Stripes about PTSD and related difficulties. US Army Europe commander General Carter Ham is featured. Ham talks about his tour in Iraq.
"By far the most terrible, gruesome event was the suicide bombing in a mess tent under Ham’s command shortly before his tour ended. Twenty-two people, 14 of them U.S. troops, were killed in the Dec. 21, 2004, attack on the dining hall at Forward Operating Base Marez near Mosul.
It was devastating to Ham, the worst day of his life, and he said he has thought about it every day since.
But that wasn’t the only thing. It was also simply the burden of command. “It was the consequences every commander lives with: You issue orders that put soldiers in harm’s way,” Ham said, “and some end up killed.”

I read this today directly after reading the following report from the Washington Monthly blog:

PRESSURE'S ON.... George W. Bush's two terms haven't been successful, but they have been eventful. The president has faced daunting challenges and striking crises, some of his own making.

And given what we've seen, statements like these are just painful.

Asked by People magazine what moments from the last eight years he revisited most often, W. talked passionately about the pitch he threw out at the World Series in 2001: "I never felt that anxious any other time during my presidency, curiously enough."

Specifically, People asked, "Which moments from the last eight years do you revisit most often?" Bush, after talking about meeting with families of fallen soldiers, replied, "I think about throwing out that pitch at the World Series on [Oct. 30] 2001. My heart was racing when I got to the mound. Didn't want to bounce it. Didn't want to let the fans down. My heart was pumping so hard, I wasn't sure if I could lift my arm. I never felt that anxious any other time during my presidency, curiously enough."

"Curiously enough." Bush knows it's a bizarre thing to say, but in this case, he was simply telling the truth -- when he reflects on his presidency, the real anxiety came when he had to throw a baseball 60 feet.

Not on Sept. 11, not when sending troops into Iraq, not when he was told we might lose an American city to a hurricane. Not when the economy collapsed, not when anthrax starting killing people through the mail, not when he was told about what had happened at Abu Ghraib, not in the midst of crises in Israel, Afghanistan, Georgia, India, North Korea, or Pakistan.

There was a cartoon a few years ago in which two alien creatures are being led from their flying saucer to where George W. Bush is waiting. "That's your Leader? one of the aliens asks.