Volunteers for Stripes? Not Jenna & Babs

In 1981, Bill Murray starred in a movie called Stripes. He plays a chronic never-do-well who joins the army and fails to find a anyone to appreciate his ironic sensibilities in his by-the-book sergeant (Warren Oates). When push comes to shove, however, the smirking hero takes charge of his ragtag unit and turns them into fighting machines, albeit to the rhythm of hit songs by Manfred Mann and Sly Stone. (summary borrowed from Amazon.com)

FDR's 4 sons went to fight in the war after the US was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor. But since Vietnam, no president has sent their children over to fight in the wars, especially Bush Sr and W. They want to win wars and believe they are noble causes, but their children don't seem to be interested in fighting for a noble cause, as Richard Bradley from the Huffington Post seems to point out.


From today's Huffington Post:

BUSH TWINS AWOL?
by Richard Bradley
August 15, 2005

Thanks in large part to Cindy Sheehan, people are starting to raise the issue of why Jenna and Barbara Bush aren't serving in the military. It's a tough question, but I think it's a fair one. The President of the United States is calling on American young people to volunteer to go to war, but his own daughters, who are certainly of the appropriate age, are better known for their drunken nightclub escapades than for any acts of patriotism.


There's a precedent for prodding Bush on this question. Back in 1993, when Bill and Hillary Clinton moved to Washington, they decided to enroll Chelsea in a private, rather than public, school. Because the decision seemed to contradict the Clintons' stated faith in public schools, the press asked the Clintons about that decision, and they had to defend it—publicly. (And unlike the Bush daughters now, Chelsea was a minor.)

It's pretty simple, really. The military doesn't have enough soldiers; the president believes that this is a good and just war; he has two daughters who could enlist in the military, but haven't. These things don't add up.

So here's a question I think a White House reporter should ask the president: " President Bush, if your own two daughters won't enlist, how can you expect anyone else's children to join the military?"

"So what really gets me is these chickenhawks, who sent our kids to die, without ever serving in a war themselves. They don't know what it's all about."---Cindy Sheehan, speech at the Vets for Peace Convention, Dallas, TX 8/05/2005