The American Spectator

TAS Live

(Page 2 of 4)

If this is an important war, we had better grit our teeth and accept that great men and women will die. It's horrible, but there it is. If we really mean to win it, though, let's get serious and have a much, much bigger Army and tax ourselves enough to pay for it. Wars are not won by tax cuts.

Anyway, I spent about two hours there and then went back to my apartment at the Watergate. I really do not deserve to be on the same planet as those men and their families and their doctors and nurses in Bethesda, but here I am, so I'll just try to get out a message of gratitude to the real sunshine of our lives: our brave, glorious military men. Let's not sell them out, again, please.

Off to dinner at the marvelous Watergate Hotel restaurant. I took my sister and Marina Malenic, also a contributor to this mag. We had a lovely meal looking out at the Potomac drifting by. We made small talk about the horrible East Coast climate, and then in strolled our Secretary of State, the redoubtable Ms. Rice. She was with two distinguished-looking men. I greeted her and she greeted me affectionately. I introduced my sister and Marina, and she introduced us. This is typical of Dr. Rice. She has the world's most deferential manners. She is almost on a par with my pal, Phil DeMuth, in the manners department.

Then, off for a solitary walk through Georgetown. It was fantastically hot and humid. They were filming a movie on 31st Street south of M Street and the sidewalk was blocked. I went over to M Street, but it was so deserted that I might as well have been in a cemetery. The climate is getting unbearable, that's the long and short of it. Is it global warming? Who knows?

Back to my little apartment to soak up the vibes of my deceased parents. I keep wondering how my father would react to the war in Iraq. I think he would say we would all be behind it a lot more if we had some shared sacrifice. It's just not pretty that we civilians should be getting our taxes cut, get rich (on paper) from real estate, watch the stock market zoom, while those who signed up to defend us get killed and maimed for us. Can't we at least have a small tax increase for the very rich? There are so many very rich and they have money to burn. (I know. I live among them.) They can spare a few thousand more each month.

Shared sacrifice is a major way to bind the nation. Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe poor Dr. Dean would make hay with that.

p> SATURDAY br> NOW, I'M IN KANSAS CITY. This city has major significance for me because it is here that we adopted our handsome but teenage son, Tommy. He is so handsome but so much a teenager. Anyway, I am not here for a celebration of that adoption. I am here to speak to the First Marine Division Association. It is a sort of alumni association of the First Marine Division. Just in case you don't know, they are the heroes who fought at Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Okinawa, New Guinea, Cho-Sin Reservoir, I-Corps, Fallujah, and, well, you get the picture. /p>

These guys are so handsome in their uniforms and their medals you can scarcely believe it. And they stand so straight and tall and still carry themselves with total pride. At a reception before the dinner, I met a man who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam. He is now a deputy secretary of defense and his name is Barney Barnum. A quiet, unassuming man. I spoke to a man who was a hero at Guadalcanal. His wife told me how he had won himself a ticket out of the war with a wound, a "million dollar wound," but then insisted on going back for the battle of Okinawa. His name was Mr. Cannell, I think. Anyway, he's my hero, and he just rides the bus like everybody else. I met two men who had fought at Cho-Sin. They were still thin enough to wear their dress uniforms from 53 years ago. They laughed about getting shot at in 35-degree-below weather. But they brought home all of their wounded and their dead. And they taught the Red Army of China that Americans could and would fight and die for freedom.

(By the way, Marina enlightened me about how totally ungrateful the South Koreans are for our sacrifice. What is wrong with them?)

We had a long speech by General Natonski, currently commanding general of the First Marine Division. He told about incredible heroism in Iraq. He was a real warrior type and I liked him a lot.

Then I gave a short speech about how our whole life is dependent on the blood and sacrifice of the Marines and the Army and Navy and Air Force and Coast Guard and how we would not breathe one breath without them.

Really, how do we nasty civilians deserve any heroes like the ones in that room? The Marine band played "Waltzing Matilda" and "God Bless America" and I felt as if I were in a room of kings.

topics:
Taxes, Business, Global Warming, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO