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Ruben Navarette: Enough old war stories from self-serving boomers

Feb 12, 2004 9:07AM PST
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/119945-1278-021.html

A little harsh, perhaps, but the Dallas Morning News columnist does have a point - the question is, are the Democrats listening?

It's as if common sense has gone AWOL from the presidential campaign.

Some media players and Democratic Party operatives are painting President Bush as nothing less than a deserter amid questions about whether he fulfilled his obligations to the Air National Guard 30 years ago.

No surprises here. Democrats and a lot of folks in the Fourth Estate who are cozy with them would like to give Bush a first-class ticket out of Washington. Besides, a lot of the people raising concerns about Bush's service record are baby boomers, whose defining experience in early adulthood was opposing the Vietnam War...

The Kerry candidacy is the perfect tribute to self-absorbed baby boomers. Many have spent the last three decades using Vietnam as a measuring stick to assess everyone who lived through it, whether they spent those years protesting the war or fighting in it.

Just don't expect much of this to resonate with my generation of Xers, or the generation that follows it -- those now in their teens and 20s.

We have had different experiences, and we've emerged with a different measuring stick. For my part, the decisions made by a George W. Bush as a young man -- or, for that matter, by Bill Clinton or John Kerry -- are of little consequence.

If the pitch is national security, all that matters is how they responded to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Before 9/11, the baby boomers' obsession with Vietnam may have been tolerable. Now it just seems trivial.


Read the whole piece. Mr. Navarette's point is clear: What those younger than we baby boom types are really concerned about is which candidate can prevent future 9/11's.

Discussion is locked

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I have to say..........
Feb 12, 2004 9:19AM PST

.......I was impressed with the article, and also surprised at my reaction.

I'm 45 y.o., my brother was in Vietnam, my boyfriend was there, my Dad is a WWII veteran, and many other men in my family are veterans. Service for one's country has always been held in high esteem with my family. It will continue to be so. That hasn't changed.

I would have expected my reaction to be one of "How dare you say that how a person dealt with their *call to duty* during that time is not an important consideration?!?" But, in absorbing the, IMO, carefully thought-out wording of this article, I find that the columnist had a good point. "We have had different experiences, and we've emerged with a different measuring stick."

That is a thought I believe I need to incorporate into my views of current and future leadership for our country.

Thanks for posting this, Paul C.,

Marcia/Oregon/USA

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Re:I have to say..........
Feb 12, 2004 10:08AM PST

Hi Marcia.

I too was wondering about that article, but after reading your post I started to get the message. Glad you followed it up. I'm a pretty big Flag Waver myself.

George