Letter: Many have never served

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 8:32 a.m.

I found some interesting data on several members of Congress and the Bush administration who are responsible for putting our troops in harm's way.

The following people never served our country in uniform: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rick Santorum, Sen. Trent Lott, Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Bush adviser Karl Rove.

Other prominent Republicans who did not serve in the military include: Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Tim Hutchinson, Rep. Chris Cox, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Richard Perle, Rudy Guiliani, Michael Bloomberg, George Pataki, Rep. Dana Rohrsbacher, Jack Kemp, Eliot Abrams, Vin Weber, George Will, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Paul Gigot, Bill Bennett, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ken Starr, Justice Scalia, and Ralph Reed.

By contrast, here are some prominent Democrats who did serve our country honorably: Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Daniel Inouye, Rep. Charlie Rangel, Gov. Gray Davis and Sen. Tom Daschle.

Then we come to George Walker Bush. He somehow wrangled an honorable discharge from the Texas Air National Guard in 1973, despite being suspended from flight duty for not taking his annual flight physical, and after shortening his tour by six months.

Patriotism is a whole lot more than wearing a flag on your lapel and standing in front of 20 flags.

JAMES J. POUPARD

Editor's note: The writer served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1955.