While the Democratically-controlled Congress has dithered
for many months over the question of whether or not George Bush and Dick Cheney
should be impeached, preferring to avoid the issue in favor of electoral
politics, and despite the increasing popularity of such action, another
probability has reared its ugly head, namely that our feckless leader has lapsed
into a state of dementia more suited to commitment (the kind where the men in
the “little white coats” arrive) than to impeachment. I refer specifically to
Bush’s statement, in a
recent interview, that he had abandoned playing golf in “solidarity” with
the families of Iraqi war casualties.
Now, aside from the fact that the president’s explanation
of the impetus for his show of solidarity turns
out to be false because the media captured him playing golf long after the
event he said precipitated his abandonment of the game (imagine that: this
president lying about something), the president’s assertion that, of all the
ways he could be showing “solidarity” with the thousands of casualties he is
responsible for that he has avoided (e.g., attending their funerals, giving them
adequate body and vehicle armor, providing them post-service health care, etc.),
the fact that giving up a game is the way he decided to do it shows (as
if we needed additional evidence) his utter disconnection from reality. One of
the hallmarks of insanity, I hasten to point out, is the disconnection from
reality. But, we really didn’t need this additional example of Bush’s state of
mind to realize that, did we?
When we look at all the other things the President chose
not to forego out of respect for the families of the dead and grievously wounded
his policies are responsible for victimizing, it becomes immediately evident
just how disingenuous his “giving up golf” as a token of his concern really is.
It certainly hasn’t prevented him from taking his notorious month-long
vacations in Crawford, Texas, from riding one of his $5,000
mountain bikes regularly, from
going to bed at the same hour most elementary school students do or even
from
sleeping quite well when he does. It didn’t stop him from
fishing in Kennebunkport or from throwing a
lavish wedding for his daughter complete with all the de
rigeur accoutrements. Do you suppose Jenna saved a piece of that cake
for any of the wounded service people at Walter Reed? No simple, low-key
ceremony for the service-eligible First Daughter while her contemporaries are
fighting and dying in Iraq. No sirree.
Now, as an inveterate golfer myself, the President’s
sacrifice made me consider, even if just for a moment, whether I should join him
(in “solidarity”) in abandoning my favorite pastime to honor our troops. After
all, other than writing a few scathing commentaries about the
folly of this war, and the uselessness
of our soldiers’ sacrifice, what have I done to honor those troops? I
haven’t even put a “Support the Troops” magnet on the back of my car (though I
did, for a short while, have a bumper sticker that portrayed Bush behind
bars—wishful thinking on my part). So, I decided to see whether the troops
themselves would find such a gesture to be symbolic of my respect., as the
President obviously thinks it is of his.
That’s when I discovered that not only do the troops not
begrudge folks who play golf, there is actually an active golfing culture going
on in the midst of war-torn Iraq, and that golf has become a major
rehabilitative activity stateside for injured Iraq veterans. A brief stopover at
our President’s favorite web site, Google,
called up innumerable YouTube and other videos showing American soldiers in Iraq
enjoying what can only be described as jury-rigged golf courses, driving ranges,
miniature golf layouts, putting greens and the like. Some examples are here,
here, and here.
Not only that, but there is actually an organization
stateside dedicated to using golf to rehabilitate injured Iraq veterans. The
Salute Military Golf Association is a goin’ and blowin’ outfit that, in
addition to sponsoring numerous
events for injured vets, has been featured in several major media reports,
like this one, and has even been taken up as a cause by the Professional
Golfers Association which donates the time of many of its high-dollar pros to
teach these vets how to hit a golf ball without the benefit of one or more of
their limbs. Somehow, this organization sees golf as not only not disrespectful
of the sacrifice made by these veterans, but as a way of honoring it. Go figure.
So, I wondered, how dare these veterans dishonor the lives
and memories of their fallen comrades by engaging in this frivolous game? Don’t
they know their Commander-In-Chief has declared golf a desecration of everything
they stand for? What do they know that their Big Kahuna doesn’t? Maybe it’s that
they can’t go fishing, or ride bikes (much less the $5,000 variety) in areas
where IED’s may be buried, or go to bed at 9:30 at night in cushy beds made up
with 500-count Egyptian cotton sheets. Or, maybe it’s that they realize that the
way to honor their fallen brethren isn’t with vapid, token, meaningless gestures
like their feckless leader disingenuously offered. Or maybe it’s just that,
despite the fact that many of them may have lost golf balls playing that
disrespectful game, either in Iraq or back home, at least they haven’t lost
their marbles.
