War Is (Not) Funny
I don’t know why it should surprise me that George W. Bush would be making jokes about the failure to find WMDs in Iraq, following the invasion and occupation of the country by U.S. forces — in which over 500 U.S. service members and thousands of uncounted Iraqi have lost, and continue to lose, their lives.
United States President George Bush joked about not finding the much-vaunted weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during a black tie dinner for journalists.
Mr Bush showed what he called a “White House Election-Year Album” slide show, poking fun at himself and other members of his administration
… One photograph in the slide show pictured Mr Bush leaning over to look under a piece of furniture.
“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere,” he told last night’s gathering of 1,500 members of the media in Washington.
He showed another picture, again of him peering into a corner of the Oval Office: “No, no weapons over there,” he said.
And as another picture of him leaning over appeared he said: “Maybe under here?”
It shouldn’t surprise me because he’s joked about some else’s death before. Not everyone is amused.
The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn’t the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. “Nope,” he said. “No weapons over there.” More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: “Maybe under here.” Laughter again.
Disapproval must have registered upon my face, for one of my tablemates said, “Come on, David, this is funny.” I wanted to reply, Over 500 Americans and literally countless Iraqis are dead because of a war that was supposedly fought to find weapons of mass destruction, and Bush is joking about it. … So what’s wrong with this picture? Bush was somber about the sacrifice being made by U.S. troops overseas. But he obviously considered it fine to make fun of the reason he cited for sending Americans to war and to death.
Do people realize we have a psychopathic, dry-drunk, frat-boy in office? The man finds it funny that we haven’t found the weapons he sent U.S. service members over there to find? He’s amused that we haven’t found them? Meanwhile hundreds of our service members pay with their lives, thousands more are wounded, and thousands Iraqis pay with life and limb? And it’s a laughing matter to him? If people still support him after this, they deserve whatever they get.
John Kerry’s response is availabe via the Drudge Report (to which I refuse to link from my site).
“That’s supposed to be funny?” Kerry asked in a statement published on the Drudge Report.
“If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he’s even more out of touch than we thought. Unfortunately for the president, this is not a joke.”
Continued the Massachusetts senator: “Five-hundred eighty-five American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last year; 3,354 have been wounded, and there’s no end in sight. … George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. But we still haven’t found them, and now he thinks that’s funny?
“George Bush didn’t tell us the truth about the economy, about job loss, about the true cost of his deceptive prescription drug plan, or about the existence of weapons of mass destruction. There’s nothing funny about that.”
I just signed up for the Kerry 2004 Meetup Day here in DC, and checked all the volunteer boxes to do whatever I can to get Kerry in office and Bush out.
Bush’s jokes may yet lose him some supporters.
The statement also included a quote from Brad Owens, an Iraq war veteran and apparent Kerry supporter.
“George Bush insulted me as a veteran and as a friend to many still serving in Iraq,” Owens said. “This act lowers the dialogue about weapons of mass destruction. War is the single most serious event that a President or government can carry its people into. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and that is no joke - this is for real. This cheapens the sacrifice that American soldiers and their families are dealing with every single day.”