From The Washington Post, 9/8/03:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40317-2003Sep7.html

Bush's Absence At Soldier's Wake Insults the District

By Courtland Milloy


In the District, President Bush serves as commander in chief of the
D.C. National Guard, the way governors do in their states.

So you might have expected him to show up yesterday at the funeral for
Spec. Darryl T. Dent, 21, the D.C. guardsman who was killed recently
in Iraq.

Canaan Baptist Church, where Dent's funeral was held, is at 16th and
Newton streets NW, not five miles from the White House.

Bush could have jogged to the wake, had a courier drop off flowers and
a card or, at the very least, telephoned the slain soldier's family.

Call Bush AWOL, missing in action -- or just too busy fundraising.

But he blew it.

"We haven't heard from him or the White House, not a word," said
Marion Bruce, Dent's aunt and family spokeswoman.

"I don't want to speak for the whole family, but I am not pleased."

Several District officials attended the funeral, including Mayor
Anthony A. Williams and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Dent is to be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery.

During a nationally broadcast speech last year, Bush referred to
Williams as "my mayor."

That being the case, he could have attended Dent's funeral as a simple
gesture of sorrow over the death of a neighbor who also happened to be
a soldier under his command.

Of course, that would not have been as stylish as, say, staging a
landing on an aircraft carrier.

And being seen at a soldier's funeral probably wouldn't make it look
like the war was over, as Bush declared on the flight deck of that
ship.

But it would have been the right thing to do.

Perhaps Bush could not figure out a way to make political hay out of
Dent's funeral -- although he does seem to have a knack for turning
sorrow over the casualties of war into talk of more war.

In March, he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair held a news
conference at Camp David at which they reportedly "exchanged
condolences" over each other's war dead, but then they went on to
declare that they would stay the course -- no matter how much blood is
shed.

If Bush appears to treat the loss of human life like a lost pawn on a
chess board, he has certainly created the backdrop for such
perceptions.

With tax cuts for those already at the peak of the nation's economy
and high unemployment for those in the pits -- to say nothing of the
deceptions used to justify a war that has so far produced little more
than fat contracts for Bush's fat-cat friends -- Bush has demonstrated
his obvious disdain for average Americans.

During a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier this year,
Bush dropped in on Michael McNaughton, a platoon sergeant in the
Louisiana National Guard who lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine
in Afghanistan.

Bush reportedly invited McNaughton to go for a jog with him once he
received his artificial leg.

Surely, there are better ways for a president to show concern for
injured veterans -- such as advocating for better health care benefits
instead of opposing them, as the Bush administration does.

For the most part, Bush's appearances in unofficial Washington nearly
always involve using the city as a backdrop for some political scheme.

He'll visit a private school to promote school vouchers or a public
school during Black History Month to show black voters he cares.

But he missed the opportunity -- if not the obligation -- to show
respect for an African American who proudly gave his life in a war
that the vast majority of African Americans oppose, including many of
the residents in the city where Dent grew up.

It's one thing for Bush to ignore the District, where he received only
about 9 percent of the vote; it's something else altogether when that
city has sent a disproportionately high percentage of its young men
and women into the military.

Dent's elected representative in Congress could not even vote on the
question of going to war.

Had Bush attended the funeral, he might at least have seen the
contradiction in Dent's casket -- a man who died trying to bring
democracy to Iraq while being disenfranchised at home.

______________________________________________________

Has the man who calls himself Commander-In-Chief attended the funeral
of any serviceman killed in action?

Harry


"My answer is: Bring them on."

Georgie W. AWOL Bush

"There will be no retreat."

Georgie W. AWOL Bush

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/One_year_gap_in_B
ush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml

One-year gap in Bush's National Guard duty.