8.09.2004

A Warning to Today's Soldiers

First, thank you for your service at a most difficult and confusing time.

But here's a word of warning. Right now, politicians will fall over themselves to have their pictures taken with you, to raise your name for their own purposes, to say how brave and wonderful you are (unfortunately, these days, too often while ALSO cutting your benefits, your immediate equipment needs, the education of your children, and too much else).

But if, someday, you decide to run for public office, those same politicians - or their legacy children or grandchildren who would NOT fight themselves - will do everything in their power to discredit you for the very service and risks you now undertake. Just look at Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and the list goes on and on.