Why Rove Quit: His Son Andrew is 18
posted by OYE @ 8/13/2007 07:12:00 PM
6 comments
Monday, August 13, 2007
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6 Comments:
This was more apropos to the dumb comments conservatives left on the May post when y'all were wishing Andrew Rove a happy birthday, but I couldn't resist re-posting it here.
I find the repeated claim that those who favor the war politically have no obligation to take any real action in support of it, even action that would involve little or no physical danger to themselves*, to be ridiculous. The absurdity is heightened when the inaction is compared to this blogger's failing to be a human shield. I suppose the 101st Fighting Keyboardists have no ability to distinguish between A's thinking that the war in Iraq is stupid adventurism that wastes American lives and money, and B's thinking that Shiite death squads should be protected from the U.S. army. (Wait, have the 101st figured out that Iraq isn't a single mass of undifferentiated Muslims yet?) That's modern conservative politics for you: avoiding unnecessary, expensive foreign entanglements = aid to sectarian murderers. Somewhere, William F. Buckley is shaking his head and ordering another drink.
And somewhere else, the man charged with coordinating the war in Iraq is considering a draft because we're so low on bodies that they're ready to forget what they learned from Vietnam about conscripted soldiers.
The reference to helping AIDS victims in Africa is marginally better, but not much. Let me break it down for conservatives who have never thought about what aid work actually involves:
1) We are at a definite shortage of people who are willing to serve in Iraq. We are seeing desertions and deliberate self-injuries among those who face doing another tour there; we are seeing an infusion of felons into our military and other lowering of standards because we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Let me know when the Peace Corps has to threaten people with prison to keep them in the field, or when Doctors Without Borders knowingly recruits alcoholics and druggies. And I would love to see the lawsuit in which Franklin Graham gets sued for asking Samaritan's Purse volunteers to stay an extra 18 months beyond their initial commitment.
2) The military can shape anyone who is within fairly loose parameters of physical, mental and emotional fitness into a servicemember. Even someone who may be deemed unfit for combat can serve in a support role -- as women, officially barred from combat, are getting killed and captured doing.
Aid operations in foreign countries are far more demanding about recruits. One must have a useful skill, whether in medical care, engineering, agriculture, the local languages, charity fundraising... there are many ways to help, but the high school dropouts who are eligible for the military would be utterly useless in African aid work. I've considered becoming a JAG officer, but I've never considered doing aid work in Africa because I would be no help at all. I'm bad at languages; there are people with more advanced economics degrees than mine already arguing what's best for Africa; the JD is only useful for the war crimes tribunals, which also are overstaffed with people better educated in international and human rights law than I. My little sister, in contrast, studied public health and is getting her MD in hopes of getting her dream job for the World Health Organization.
Even when Karl Rove himself was 20 years younger and 50 lbs lighter, and thus well able to serve in the military, he'd have been a deadweight for foreign aid work because he lacks useful skills (e.g., he's said that a math class and the foreign language requirement are all standing between him and a B.A.). Bamboozling voters might be helpful to a tinpot dictator, but not to the people suffering under his rule.
At the moment, Andrew Madison Rove probably couldn't do any good for an HIV+ woman trying to find a source of clean drinking water to use for mixing formula for her newborn. However, he could go into basic training and relieve from duty a soldier who may be on his fourth tour.
* Hey those of you who are physicians -- we're now at the point in the VA hospitals that they're letting people with foreign training, who otherwise would be ineligible to practice in the U.S., be doctors for the vets -- ever thought of taking a break from a highly-paid private practice to care for those who have served their country?
You mean Rove has REPRODUCED? Oy.
Rove has encountered his past. Skeletons from his closet were rattled and he quietly left office. Stay tuned there is more to come. Think 1980's WH, call boy scandal...Then think Rove. BINGO!
blogenfreude-
Rove was, and is, married to the child's mother, starting well before the child's birth.
Our legal system therefore assumes that he's the child's father.
Let's leave it at that, OK?
Karl said...
blogenfreude-
Rove was, and is, married to the child's mother, starting well before the child's birth.
Our legal system therefore assumes that he's the child's father.
Let's leave it at that, OK?
18 August, 2007 14:22
SO WHAT?!?!....that aint the point..the point brainiac is roves kid is just another yellow-bellied cowardly chickenhawk like his dad,bush & cheney who refuses to serve...
anonymous (19 August, 2007 11:03)-
When I said, "Let's leave it at that, OK?", I was referring exclusively to Karl Rove having reproduced.
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