Bush and funerals and hugs--a series

I took a break from my skewering of Wolfowitless to focus on what I consider to be a major failing of our Commander in Chief. George W. Bush has yet to attend one funeral or one memorial service for anyone who has been killed in Iraq. Much was written about this at the end of 2003, but it has not really been mentioned in the mainstream media since then. Well, it is time to discuss this subject once more. I will discuss seven "defenses" for Bush's conduct, and I will explain why attending funerals or memorials--or not attending them--is important and how it shows an utter lack of character. Each "defense" will be addressed in a separate post, sarting now...

Defense 1: Historically, Presidents have not attended funerals or memorials.

I came across this defense in this blog post by John Cole. The primary argument made in that post is that historically Presidents have not typically attended funerals of soldiers during war time. Cole's source was this article from the History News Network.

Cole's post and the History News Network article looked at every President (except Ford) beginning with Johnson:

LBJ attended two funerals for soldiers who died during the Vietnam War.

Richard Nixon does not appear to have attended the funerals of any soldiers killed in Vietnam. He did award posthumous medals of honor to the families of several soldiers on 22 April 1971 and on several other occasions. On Veterans day in 1971 he visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery. In 1973 he met with the family of Colonel William Nolde after the colonel was buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Jimmy Carter attended a memorial service for the soldiers killed in the failed rescue of America hostages in Iran in 1980.

Ronald Reagan attended memorial services on several occasions for American soldiers. In 1983 he attended a service at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in connection with the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which cost the lives of 241 people. In 1987 he attended a service at Mayport Naval Station in Florida for the sailors killed on the USS Stark.

George Herbert Walker Bush does not appear to have attended any funerals for American soldiers. (The NYT, citing Marlin Fitzwater as a source, indicated that the president did attend several such funerals. But no details were provided.)

Bill Clinton attended a service in October 2000 in memory of the 17 sailors killed in the attack on the USS Cole. After the terrorist bombing the Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City he publicly grieved with the families of the victims at an event[.]

After listing the above, Cole pronounced that "In short, it simply is not typical for a President to attend funerals of soldiers during wartime[,]" and declared the death of "this idiotic, mean-spirited, ill-informed, and partisan meme." You know I just love it when someone who, in getting all righteous and indignant, destroys his own argument. See, while it may indeed not be typical for a President to attend funerals, the complaint about George W. Bush is that he has not attended even one funeral or one memorial service. The evidence cited by Cole shows that every President discussed therein did attend at least one funeral or memorial service. Way to go, Mr. Cole!

There are other problems with this historical argument. It seems that Cole is saying that since other Presidents didn't attend funerals, any criticism of Bush is just plain mean. Just because past Presidents were not so harshly criticized does not mean that they did not deserve to be criticized, nor does it mean that Bush does not deserve to be crticized, especially because of what he said in a December 2002 interview with Barbara Walters--which will be discussed later.