George Graham

“Chicken Hawk” Mitt Would Send Our Kids to War

I stayed up later than usual last night because Sandra was researching cholesterol on the web. She was worried because her lab report showed her cholesterol over 200, and apparently that’s not good. I don’t know what she found but I’m afraid it isn’t going to be good news for me; all the foods I love are probably on her taboo list now.

Anyway, there’s always a silver lining. Waiting for Sandra to come to bed, I caught Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. He is one of those earnest folks who are outraged – yes outraged! – over this or that. And this time he was really teed off. He had found out that Mitt Romney is a hypocrite!

Well button my shoes! I am shocked!

Romney a hypocrite? That’s like calling the Pope a Catholic.

But I have to admit O’Donnell has every right to be outraged this time. 

I don’t expect much of Mitt Romney. I know, and you know – and by now the whole world must know  – that he is nothing but a fake. When he comes out with another lie, I am no longer amazed.

But some lies are more despicable than others.

And Romney’s lies about Vietnam are about as despicable as you can get. He has said repeatedly that he wanted so much to be there, fighting shoulder to shoulder with his fellow-Americans. And it turns out he sought and got deferments to dodge the draft.

I’d thought – naively – that Romney might have some redeeming qualities because he once served as a missionary. But he was not really a missionary; he was just another draft dodger. He took advantage of a special arrangement between the Mormon Church and the draft board to lie low inParis when he should have been slogging through the jungle in ‘Nam.

O’Donnell made the point that Muhammad Ali received radically different treatment when he refused to be drafted because he was a Muslim cleric. He lost his title and almost went to prison. The draft board was not about to give him a pass.

Adding to the sickening saga is the fact that Romney is such a hawk. If elected president, he promises to blow Iran out of the water, and he has surrounded himself with Bush-era neo-cons who are always trying to push America into another war. 

 Yet, as O’Donnell noticed, Romney’s five strapping sons are nowhere near the front. They’re living the good life back in the USA while other people’s children are being killed and maimed in Afghanistan.

How do people like Mitt Romney sleep at night? How do they confront themselves in the mirror? What kind of Teflon are they made of?

And who in their right mind would want a president like that?

Click here for O’Donnell’s report.

Click here for the Muhammad Ali story.

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com