Responding to a question at a meeting of conservative MilBloggers, President Bush expressed a desire to fight on the ground in Iraq, except “One, I’m too old to be out there, and two, they would notice me.”
I guess this was meant to be funny. I mean, we remember how much Mr. Bush did to avoid ending up on the ground in Viet Nam when he wasn’t “too old”. As to how easily they would notice him, let’s chalk that up to vanity.
The desire to be there, at least in his verbal expression to those who are not too old or noticeable, must symbolize a kind of courageous affinity with the young military volunteers. It would be good for us to think of our President as courageous, if only so many of us didn’t think of him as an extreme fabricator. The image in my head is Bush leaving the jet fighter in his masculine flight suit on that aircraft character to declare victory in Iraq some 3800 bodies ago.