"Not ready for duty, sir . . ."

[beaconess]

Dear President Bush -

In your acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican Convention(oh, how long ago that seems), you criticized the Clinton Administration for "eroding" the military.

"Little more than a decade ago, the Cold War thawed and, with the leadership of Presidents Reagan and Bush, that wall came down.

"But instead of seizing this moment, the Clinton/Gore administration has squandered it. We have seen a steady erosion of American power and an unsteady exercise of American influence.

"Our military is low on parts, pay and morale.

If called on by the commander in chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report. 'Not ready for duty, sir.'

"This administration had its moment. They had their chance. They have not led. We will."

Back in 1992, flush from the success of the first Gulf War, Dick Cheney was fond of telling audiences, "One of the things you are very much aware of as Secretary of Defense when it's time to war is that the force you have to deploy is the one you inherited from your predecessors... I called former President Reagan and Secretary Weinberger a few days after the {first Gulf}war was over with to thank them for what they have done to create the force that made it possible for us to prevail this time around."

But funny - well, not so funny, given how serious it is - thing. Less than two years later, you launched the first of two wars on your watch. And the military that Clinton left you kicked ass.

And then when you started your ill-fated invasion of Iraq, Clinton's military again proved they were more than ready for duty.

And I bet that Dick Cheney didn't call President Clinton to thank him for the excellent military he left you. Of course he didn't, since that would reveal your convention statement - like so many of your other claims - to have been a bald-face lie, an outright slander.

And now, six years into your watch, when the military is undoubtedly yours, it's a different story. By your own admission (which is a pretty amazing thing, given your inability to recognize or admit to the obvious until long after everyone else knows it to be so), YOUR military is in a shambles, thanks to your ineptitude, hubris, bad decisionmaking, and tolerance of the greed of your friends and cronies.

You, Mr. President, not only lied, you have failed. You've failed the military, you have failed the country. You have failed those poor kids that you keep sending into a hopeless mission that only you seem to think is still worth the lives of other people's children. You have decimated the military and it will take years, probably decades for the next president and his successors to fix it.

I bet you'd love to have the military that Bill Clinton left you right now. I sure wish you did.

[ninkasi]

1. I wish we had not only the military

but everything else Bill Clinton left us.