Bush Twins must speak out in opposition to war or enlist and serve

[cui bono]

This according to Michael Kinsley in today's WaPo. I agree wholeheartedly.

----------------------------
<snip>

Living your life according to your own values is a challenge for everyone, and it must be a special challenge if you happen to be the president. No one thinks that the president should have to give up a child to prove that his family is as serious about freedom as these other families he praises. But it would be reassuring to see a little struggle here -- some sign that the Bush family truly believes that American soldiers are dying for our freedom, and that it's worth it.

Who knows? Maybe they have had huge arguments about this. Maybe George and Laura wanted the girls to join the Red Cross, or the Peace Corps, or do something that would at least take them off the party circuit for a couple of years. And perhaps the girls said no. But I doubt this scenario, don't you?

<snip>

His daughters are over 21, and he can't control them, but that doesn't let them off the hook. They are now independent moral actors, and their situation requires that they either publicly oppose their father's war or do something to support it. Is it unfair to expect Jenna and Barbara to shape their lives around their father's folly? Of course it's unfair. If this is war, then unfairness comes with the territory.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401049.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Though I don't like the Bush twins anymore than anyone else...

...it's still a free country and there's no real reason why their spoiled asses should be compelled into military service just because their asshole father started an unnecessary, dishonorable war.

It works as hyperbole, though...

PB

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Historically, however, this has been the case

Robert Todd Lincoln didn't enlist in the Civil War (his mother objected) until he was graduated from Harvard-and he was demonized by the press because he didn't enlist sooner.

[cosmik debris]

2. Why would you punish them for their father's sin? n/t

[Missy M]

3. I must say I disagree with what Kinsley had to say regarding...

the Senator Webb encounter with Bush. He didn't quite get it right.

[jobycom]

5. You don't think being Bush's kids was traumatic enough for them?

IF they were abused while W was coming home drunk every day until he was forty, then I have no problem with them trying to stay as far away from him as they can. There are rumors that they refuse to see him because of things he's done to them. At the very least, he has failed to show up at their milestone events (graduation, for instance) or at times when they needed him most (while on trial, for instance). This is not a functional family.

And I see no reason, irregardless, of why the public should decide how they live their lives. Bush was a lousy father. They shouldn't have to keep paying for that, just because he is now a lousy president, too.

Just my opinion.

[Diane R]

8. You know, I think you are right.

Now that we are getting ever closer to seeing what a totally dysfunctional, abusive person he is, I am starting to consider what kind of childhood these girls must have had. I can only imagine how mean and abusive Bush must have been to these girls behind closed doors. And Pickles was probably just numbing herself somehow.

It's becoming clear that they are not close to their father ... or even their mother... at all. It seems to me that Jenna and Barbara essentially have a family of two.

[Caution]

6. They are private citizens and are required to do no such thing.

They have as much right to privacy as a married gay couple in MA, or a woman choosing to have an abortion.

Until this is mandatory for all citizens they have as much right as you or I to say and do absolutely nothing about their father's folly.

I also am not going to visit the sins of the father on them. The fact that they are his children does not make them in any way responsible for his insanity, and it also does not require that they make any choices whatsoever about his policies.

This is the land of the free. For everyone.

[Bandit]

20. I would agree except they actively campaigned for him and his folly

I would like to see every young person that actively campaigns for and advocates for war to participate in that venture. It has been my experience that those who have served and been in Combat are the ones most likely to oppose such for others..

[endarkenment]

7. Nah, they need to get photographed naked next time they pull

a drunken hotel stunt. I want the pain and suffering and humiliation visited on dumbass to be total. I want whiskey to be his only friend.

[Speck Tater]

9. Their third alternative is to declare their indifference. (nt)

[mentalsolstice]

10. Too dangerous for them to serve

I don't particularly care what happens to them, one way or the other. However, if they were to serve in the military, it would be akin to putting a bullseye on the forehead of every person in their unit. I don't want someone else's kid to die because he or she just happened to be standing near one of Bush's kids.

[bahrbearian]

17. They could join the Army of One.

[enid602]

11. twins

I can just see someone in Baghdad trying to sell their dental fillings on E-bay.

[Mike Daniels]

12. One could make the same argument for the child of any politician

who gave the green light on Iraq.

Seems like a cheap shot to limit his aim to B&J.

[Superman Returns]

13. their girls

sure women serve in the military but its not expected of your average female to enlist. If they were guys however, then you have a point.

[Vickers]

14. I disagree...I think their current actions illustrate perfectly the difference

between the "Support Our Troops!" magnet crowd and actual patriots.

[DocSavage]

15. Does this apply

to the children of any politican present or future? I was on AD during Kosovo, and I know that I did not seen Chelsea in the ranks.

[Totallybushed]

16. KInsley is often

WRONG. This is one of those times.

His daughters are over 21, and he can't control them, but that doesn't let them off the hook. They are now independent moral actors, and their situation requires that they either publicly oppose their father's war or do something to support it. Is it unfair to expect Jenna and Barbara to shape their lives around their father's folly? Of course it's unfair. If this is war, then unfairness comes with the territory.

I utterly fail to see where anything that ANYONE else does obligates anybody in anyway whatsoever. Not that it wouldn't be a nice gesture, one way or the other. But you can't even oblige someone to HAVE an opinion.

[gratuitous]

18. I think the Bush daughters have already made their public declaration

And it's "We don't give a fuck about the troops, the war, the murderously inept policies of our dad's administration, or anything else that doesn't have to do with our next empty experience which is afforded to us because we're ultra-rich and you're not."

That, at least, seems obvious to me. I guess Mr. Kinsley sees it differently.

[Fridays Child]

19. And because they campaigned for their father in 2004, this is all the more true.

They took a stand and, now, they need to either refute it or defend it.

[Solo_in_MD]

21. Look at Zumwalt...

His son was killed by Agent Orange.