Is George W. Bush a coward?

[Cyrano]

Going AWOL doesn't mean someone is a coward. During the Vietnam War, many people went AWOL because they refused to fight for a cause in which they didn't believe. (Not the case with King George.)

Speaking only in front of hand-picked audiences doesn't make him a coward. It just means he's an inarticulate, paranoid who can't tolerate dissension.

The reason for the question, however, is because he ended up flying all around the country on 9/11 rather than returning to Washington immediately. I truly believe that Bill Clinton, and most other presidents, would have gone back to the White House as quickly as possible to reassure the American public.

We already know that he's a sadist. What else would you call someone who blew up frogs when he was a kid, made fun of Carla Faye Tucker after she was executed in Texas, ("Please don't kill me."),
and, as president, gave the go-ahead for torture.

We also know that this is a man who lacks any hint of conscience or compassion. But is he a coward? What do you think?

[hobbit709]

1. YES!!!!!!!!

[warrior1]

Why Yes, Yes he is

So is most of his party and the people who vote for him...

[Octafish]

40. Coward is the essence of ''Conservative.''

"A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run." -- Elbert Hubbard

Bush is skinny because modern ultra-rich like to be ultra-thin. Didn't use his spare time on learning, either.

[marmar]

Absolutely he's a coward...

It's easy to resolute-sounding when you're sending other people's children off to fight in a war that you know is based on bullshit. He's the worst kind of coward.
As Mike Malloy said, if you told Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to meet you outside the bar for a fight, they'd run off like turkeys. I definitely believe that.

[patricia92243]

2. I thought he went AWOL to serve on some political party. Have never heard

that he was against the war - are you sure about this one?

[Cyrano]

10. I didn't say he was against the war. I said that many who went AWOL were.

And then I followed that up with, "Not the case with King George." As far as I know, he was all for it, as long as he didn't have to go.

[YDogg]

3. I think he is a coward, but that's just the start.

[Monkeyman]

4. As a Vietnam vet Yes he is!

Plus you missed something about him going AWOL Drug testing started 1972 when he fell off the map

[hippiechick]

5. Are pigs pink?

[Swamp Rat]

16. LOL!

[hippiechick]

20. Nice one, Swampy!

[Swamp Rat]

21. Here's a new one:

[hippiechick]

27. LMAO!

You keep getting better and better!

[Cyrano]

37. Another great one, Swamp Rat. You've got to get these published where

your talent will get much wider exposure. I know how difficult it is to get published, especially today in a media which is almost totally controlled by the GOP.

Try writing to Katrina vanden Heuvel at "The Nation." I'd be surprised if she hasn't already seen your work here on DU.

[havocmom]

6. Cowardice runs in the family. Did you see Jeb hiding in the closet?

Couldn't make it walking past a few protesters. What a wimp!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[CONewRevolution]

7. Is the Pope Catholic?

Does a bear shit in the woods?

<G> I'm going to have to use "Is Bush a Coward?" as a response to those "Well, duh!" questions.

[Boojatta]

42. Every Pope is more like a Protestant than a Catholic.

Ordinary Catholics are guided by the Pope, but the Pope is theoretically guided by some kind of inspiration directly from God, which is how Protestants are theoretically guided.

[MadMaddie]

8. Absolutely......he was a coward when Cindy wanted to see him

again...

He is a coward because he refuses to go to any military funerals...

He is a coward because he is afraid to negotiate...

He is a coward because he didn't defend the poor in the Gulf Region when they lost their homes, familis and lives while O"Reilly and Limpballs attacked them...

And now he is pouting because the Republicans are splitting everywhere and he is starting to show his childishnes...

Most Bullys are cowards.....

[madame defarge]

9. That's a rhetorical question, right? n/t

[Uncle Joe]

11. Does Deadeye Dick shoot in the woods?

Of course he is a coward, and I would be willing to bet his breath stinks too.

[Union Thug]

12. He is the worst sort of coward. He swaggers and spits when he

knows he's protected, but in reality, he's a pissy little rich kid who never fights his own battles

[Freedom_from_Chains]

13. Yep, I thought the portrayal of the chancellor in V for Vendetta

was an accurate portrayal of Bush.

[Red Right and BLUE]

14. That's the big 10-4 nt

[Johonny]

15. Seems like it

Only speaks in front of canned audiences.

needed fencing and bullet proof glass to take the oath of office

flew to a safe location on 9/11

does not go to funerals of Iraqi victims

man you can make a longer list if you want to.

[tularetom]

17. He is a moral and a physical coward

To me, being AWOL during Vietnam does not in itself prove cowardice, unless it was accompanied by support for the war. Many who refused to serve did so out of a deeply felt objection to the policy and knowingly at risk to their personal safety and freedom. They most assuredly were not cowards. I'm not sure I'd have had the balls to stand up and say bullshit if I'd been put in that position. I probably would've kept my mouth shut and gone just to keep out of jail. But this wasn't bushie boy's problem. He apparently gave lip service to support of the policy but had his well placed daddy go to great lengths to stay out of Nam himself. He's a coward for ducking Cindy Sheehan, for flying over NO at 30,000 feet after Katrina, and on and on.

[agincourt]

18. The phrase that comes to mind is an old one,

Worthless, completely worthless, as in having the value of teats on a boar. Coward? Cowards are sometimes intelligent or useful. Bush is neither.

[DaveJ]

19. Cowardice is sort of a defining characteristic of neocons...

They typically surround themselves with only people who agree with them, people who will not threaten them in any way. They are intimidated by any kind of new ideas because they are afraid that any kind of change or progress is a threat to them. They are afraid of immigrants, they are afraid of different religions and governments, they are afraid homosexuals will ruin their way of life, they are afraid of developing alternative fuel technologies, they are afraid at even looking at the future as in what will happen if we don't develop new fuel technologies. They hire others to fight for them in their wars because they are too afraid to fight for themselves. They are afraid of art, like a controversial painting might somehow damage their lifestyle. They are afraid of education, many of them wanting to abolish the Department of Education, and they are afraid of the poor, thinking that helping them will cause them to go bankrupt. They are afraid of taxing the rich, probably because they are afraid of the rich. Yeah I think almost all Cons are frightened little children.

[madokie]

22. Hell Yes he is a coward can't you smell him,

he smells like sulfur, Hugo says so.

[Boojatta]

23. Not necessarily

Going AWOL doesn't mean someone is a coward. During the Vietnam War, many people went AWOL because they refused to fight for a cause in which they didn't believe. (Not the case with King George.)

What if he believed in it, but didn't think that it was important enough to risk his own death or injury for?

The reason for the question, however, is because he ended up flying all around the country on 9/11 rather than returning to Washington immediately. I truly believe that Bill Clinton, and most other presidents, would have gone back to the White House as quickly as possible to reassure the American public.

If major symbolic locations are being hit, then an attempt to reassure people by going to a major symbolic location could have backfired.

[DaveJ]

25. Wasn't Important Enough?

That is a caviler attitude many neocons have. What they are really saying is that it is worth some poor schmuck, but not THEM, getting seriously injured. That to me is cowardice.

[Boojatta]

28. Suppose an ally is involved in a war.

If you were the President, isn't it possible that you might offer some kind of assistance that falls short of providing US soldiers?

[Boojatta]

34. A simpler response?

Going AWOL doesn't mean someone is a coward. During the Vietnam War, many people went AWOL because they refused to fight for a cause in which they didn't believe.

During the Vietnam War, some people had connections that ensured that they would be in no danger. Such people went AWOL not because they were cowards, but for other reasons. For example, some of them may have been irresponsible.

[Bouncy Ball]

24. Would he go to Iraq to fight right now?

Alongside the soldiers he has sent? With the equipment they have and the situation they are in?

If the answer to that question is no, and I suspect it is, then he is a coward of the highest degree. He created this war.

[Avalux]

26. He's a big bully, and bullies are cowards.

Remember the nasty kids in school who picked fights with those who were smaller and less able to defend themselves? That's Bush. Mean-spirited snot who enjoys watching others suffer to compensate for his own feelings of inadequacy.

[Imagevision]

29. Bush; "bring em on"? George a coward and a fu*king lunatic also!

[TahitiNut]

30. Speaking as a vet, absolutely.

I doubt Junior would have survived more than a minute or two under fire in Viet Nam. I know what it feels like to wet my pants under fire. I know how it feels to be shot at. I also know what guys with some amount of courage do when they're scared: they DO WHAT'S NECESSARY even though piss-in-the-pants scared. That's NOT Junior. I just cannot imagine he'd not be fragged, if he were an officer - or just shot for cowering on the ground and failing to obey orders. After all, courage isn't about not being scared - it's about doing what's right even though you are scared. I NEVER met a vet who wasn't scared. Never. The ones who ran or cowered didn't come back.

I'd like anyone who thinks Junior's not a coward to give me a single example of where Junior did the right thing even though he was afraid. Just one.

[Arkham House]

31. Absolutely--and that's the one thing a President cannot be

A President can be a crook, a moron, a fanatic, a drunk, a womanizer, a racist, even a lunatic--we've had 'em all...and the Republic survived. But we have NEVER (excuse the caps) had a coward before--and that's the one thing a President CANNOT be. But Bush is...which is why I am now convinced that Bush has even surpassed Wilson as our worst President--and why I'm so afraid of the next two years...

[Boojatta]

32. Could you clarify this?

During the Vietnam War, many people went AWOL because they refused to fight for a cause in which they didn't believe.

Do you mean:

1. They didn't support US military involvement in the war?

2. They didn't believe that the South Vietnamese government deserved any kind of US support?

3. They didn't believe that there was a serious danger that North Vietnamese influence would spread after a North Vietnamese victory over South Vietnam?

4. They believed that the people in Vietnam who supported the North Vietnamese government thought of themselves as primarily fighting a war of national liberation rather than an ideological war in support of the policies of the USSR and China?

[Cyrano]

41. Nice try, boojatta. My reply is none of the above. There were many

people in that era who saw the bullshit of the "Domino Theory" just as there are many today who know that Iraq is another war that we're in because another president lied to us.

I have no idea where your coming from on this, but I was one of the people who didn't have the courage to go AWOL, even though I somehow felt the Vietnam war was a lie. It was many years after that I finally understood that all wars (with very few exceptions such as WWII) are planned events for the benefit of those who profit from war.

I have friends who went to Canada rather than becoming lemmings. They had a far greater insight into what was going on at the time than did I.

Had I seen the world as they saw it then, I too might have gone to Canada, Sweden, or hell, rather than become cannon fodder for some theory thought up by the wingnuts of that era and supported by Dems who, even then, didn't have the cajuns to stand up for what was right.

I forgot who said it, but the cold war ended when Jack Kennedy stood up to Kruschev over the missiles in Cuba and Kruschev backed down. After that, mutually assured destruction ensured that no war between the USSR and the U.S. would ever take place. (China was still a paper tiger at that time.) Everything from that point on was Rove-like bullshit to further enrich the already rich. No different than what's taking place today in Iraq.

[Boojatta]

47. I was about to include "none of the above" as an option.

However, it seemed inappropriately formal for an ordinary post that is not a poll.

I wasn't trying anything except to point out that there are at least a few different senses in which somebody might support one side in a war. I didn't even mention the possibility that one who supports one side in a war might also support a permanent truce if the side one doesn't support is willing to refrain from aggressive action.

[Cyrano]

50. Refraining from aggressive action was impossible in that era. Both

Johnson and Nixon had a mindset that said "I won't be the first American president to lose a war." But, again, this sidesteps the profiteering of the military/industrial alliance which Eisenhower warned us about when he left office.

But let me take this to a more personal level. I don't know whether or not you've ever gone to The Wall in Washington DC. Maya Lin, the Wall's designer, took a wagon load of crap for it before people went there and saw it for themselves. To me, it's the greatest anti-war monument ever built. It's impossible to stand there and not well up in tears.

The names of almost 59,000 Americans are etched into that black marble. But the names of the uncounted number of Vietnamese who died defending their country appear nowhere.

The futility and insanity of that war should have ensured that such a thing would never happen again. Yet here we are, with young Americans killing the "THEMS" once more. One American death or injury is too high a price to pay for the profit and egos of the madmen who have stolen our country. And one Iraqi death or injury is too high a price to pay to further enrich Halliburton, Cheney, et al.

Did you know that dog tags worn by all American service people have a notch in them? A sergeant once explained to me that the notch was there so that a dog tag can be pushed or kicked between the teeth of your corpse so you could be identified. To this very day, I don't know whether or not he was putting me on. But I do know that the names on that wall and the uncounted Vietnamese dead were all human beings who died so that a very few could reap in more wealth than they already had.

But I've strayed far from the topic under discussion. I have no idea whether or not George W. Bush would be defined as a coward under battlefield conditions. No one in the world can predict that about themselves or anyone else until the moment of truth arrives. The only constant under such conditions is fear. How one handles that fear is the difference between a "hero" and a "coward." My guess is that, at different times, under varying circumstances, any one of us could be a "hero" or a "coward."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. Bullies generally are and Bush qualifies as a bully.

A loud mouthed, swaggering, adolescent, frat-boy, bully. Otherwise, he's just a pathetic asshole.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

35. Not as cowardly...

as the people who voted for him.

[Aristus]

36. He publicly supported the war in Vietnam, and did everything he could

to ensure that only someone else's sons would have to fight. That's cowardice.

[Boojatta]

38. His father was someone else, so he was someone else's son.

Which Bush are we talking about?

[Octafish]

39. Bush is a FUCKING COWARD!

Plus the dim fuck has never worked a fucking day in his fucking fucked-up life.

FUCK YOU BUSH!

[DireStrike]

43. Does bush wipe his ass with the constitution? -nt-

[DawgHouse]

44. He's a thug.

[mvd]

45. Yep

And a chickenhawk.

[bdamomma]

46. Yes, of course

[zulchzulu]

48. Does dogshit stink?

Um...

[Doctor_J]

49. Was the Pope a Hitler Youth?

Of course he's a coward. He's afraid of UNSCRIPTED QUESTIONS for chrissakes. He throws a fit and has to be intensely medicated just to be out among people. He faces only heavily screened crowds and "journalists". Among the most cowardly men you will ever run across.

[opihimoimoi]

51. My Vote::: COWARD and STUPID TOO

[pinniped]

52. He's a little coward POS who chickened out on the 'duel' offer....

made by Sadaam.

Little boy probably pissed in his Underoos.