a flicker of honor in an otherwise long dark night

ByWil

Last month, I wrote about Cornell du Houx, a Bowdoin College senior who is development director for the College Democrats of America and co-president of the Maine College Democrats. He opposes the Iraq war, and the Bush administration’s policies, but he is a United States Marine, and when he graduates he will be deployed to Iraq.

"Regardless of my opinions regarding
the war in Iraq, it is my duty as a U.S. Marine to serve and I am ready
and willing to do my job to its fullest extent," he said.

Others on campus, particularly his political opponents in the Bowdoin
College Republicans, feel differently about his service. Daniel
Schuberth, a leader of the Bowdoin College Republicans and College
Republican national secretary, said, "I applaud Mr. Houx for his
service, just as I applaud any other soldier who is brave enough to
take up arms in defense of his country. I find it troubling, however,
that one of the most vocal opponents of our president, our country and
our mission in Iraq has chosen to fight for a cause he claims is wrong.
Mr. Houx’s rhetoric against the war on terror places him in agreement
with the most radical fringes of the Democratic Party, and I am left to
question his logic and motivation."

I blew a gasket when I read Daniel Schuberth’s remarks, and wrote,

Boy, it sure is cute how Daniel Schuberth tries real real hard to spit out his Mehlman-ordered
talking points, but has he listened to what he’s saying? Daniel
Schuberth, who should probably earn some sort of award from Operation Yellow Elephant,
has the fucking nerve to criticize a brave soldier who is following
orders, even though he doesn’t believe in the war, when he won’t enlist
himself. He may claim that Cornell du Houx is a representative of the
"most radical fringes of the Democratic Party," but it’s pretty clear
that chickenhawks like Daniel Schuberth are in direct agreement with
the mainstream of George Bush’s Republican Party. I’m sure he has
"other priorities", just like Dick Cheney did during the Vietnam War.
What a brave, brave little fighting keyboardist he is!

Today, I read on the Operation Yellow Elephant blog that Mr. Schuberth has apologized to Cornell du Houx, and retracted his remarks.

College Republican National Committee Secretary Dan Schuberth (Bowdoin ’06) has retracted
his criticism of his classmate, College Democrat (and Marine reservist)
Alex Cornell du Houx, who opposes the war in Iraq but is doing his
military duty;

In a letter to the student newspaper, Schuberth
wrote, "In my attempt to deal a blow to a political opponent, I made
the mistake of questioning his patriotism and motivation for choosing
to fight in Iraq."

"While I strongly disagree with Alex in terms
of his political beliefs and his demeanor towards those who disagree
with him," Schuberth continued, "it was inappropriate of me to question
his patriotism and motivation for joining our armed forces. As I stated
before, I have nothing but the highest degree of respect for any
soldier who is brave enough to take up arms in defense of his or her
country. This respect is offered regardless of a soldier’s political
beliefs.

I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my remarks."

After personally trashing John McCain, his wife, and their children in the 2000 South Carolina primary, George W(orst president ever) Bush told McCain, "It’s just politics, John." McCain reportedly replied, "Not everything is politics, George."

If Shuberth is sincere (and I have no reason to doubt that he is), he’s
earned my respect by admitting that he was simply trying to score
political points with the extreme right wing of the extreme Republican
party and apologizing for it.

I wonder if any Congressional Republicans will follow his example?

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16 Comments

  1. Why limit it to Republicans? Think that a Democrat or even an Independent has never “tried to score political points with” whomever by doing something such as this? Love your stuff, Wil, but let’s all be a bit more realistic here…
    Can’t wait til you’re back out of Exile, I miss the old homepage. Awesome to see you posting more regularly though.
    -M

  2. While I differ greatly with Wil with regard to his political beliefs and views of the current President, I was wanting to throttle my fellow Republcan before reading his apology. There is no excuse for denigrating someone who is serving in our military for disagreeing with his Commander-in-chief unless he voices a readiness to directly undermine the eforts of his or her fellow servicemen/women. While there may be other regulations that prohibit such speech on the part of this Marine, I have nothing but respect for his willingness to fight for the freedoms I enjoy. Argue on the merits of his opinions, but honor his service.
    Happy Birthday to all our brave Marines!!

  3. Interesting point, Wil… do you think the “Extreme” Republican party is any more extreme to the right than the Democratic party is to the left?
    Personally, I don’t like either of them, but I also don’t particularly like mischaracterizing one party as less blatanly self-important and power-hungry than the other (even if done inherently).
    I know, I know… it’s your blog, and you’re free to write what you want, and I agree with that. Just wanted to ask that question.

  5. I’m glad to see this posting. I have become immensely outraged with politicians back peddling in their own propaganda and bullshit in order to retract comments that they already so passionately spewed upon the public. As much as I loathe the war and the actions that our president (who is supposed to protect and serve our country)has taken, I hold an endless amount of respect for Cornell du Houx and the many other people who are being sent into a hell that most of us will never know. I hope George W. and his cronies have a good view of the mockery, dishonor, and manipulation they have bestowed upon our country.

  6. It’s one thing to have an opinion about this all, and it’s another thing to serve in the military and to serve the needs of the Republic (it’s not a democracy, after all). When you sign on, you raise your right and and say you will go and do what the country needs, so long as it is legal and ethical as defined by the Uniformed Code of Military Justice. I admire du Houx for serving, moreso knowing his personal opinions about the war. One can’t enlist or join the military just to carry babies through flooded waters.

  8. I do not for the life of me understand how someone can be “against the war” yet “support our troops”. I mean that’s all nice and PC to say, but come on… WHY are you against the war? There are a number of reasons, but let’s look at some of them:
    1) It was based on a lie – first of all… puh-lease! There was no “lie” here. There were records of stockpiles of weapons that Saddam once had that he could not or wouldnot account for. If there was incorrect information (which I’m not convinced of), then blood is on everybody’s hands… there are a bevy of Democrat congressmen that spoke out strongly that going to war with Iraq was a necessary thing to do. Why did they speak out so fervently? Because they believed it was the right thing to do. Now those same congressmen are saying it was all a mistake and a lie and other baloney, but conveniently forget the very statements they made.
    Assuming for a second that it was all a lie and we had no business getting into a war over there. What do you want to do now? Put Saddam back in power? Like it or not, we have to win this war. We are fighting TWO wars in Iraq… Saddam’s been out of power for two years now, that war is done. Now, the war is for the stability of the country. Whether or not terrorists were originally in Iraq makes no difference… they sure as hell are there now and want to take power in the country — something we cannot allow.
    You can be for us finishing this as soon as possible, but for goodness sakes be for us winning it! We cannot simply pull out, and we cannot lose. Either of these options are disastrous. You can hate Bush all you want to, but he’s never every going to be elected again. Your fighting “the war” only hurts our soldiers and yourself. If you want to get out, tell me HOW you propose we do that? Timelines don’t work in a fluid situation… you can have goals, but there are FAR too many variables in play for that to be solid and besides which such a timeline would only play into the enemies hands (ever “wait-out” your parents to get something you wanted). It doesn’t work. Nope, folks… the only way out of this is for us to WIN, and the best way to do that is to support the war effort unabashedly — we have an exceptional track record of punishing those that do harm if it is warranted. Our own checks and balances in the military are better than anyone else’s. I don’t want any “misdeeds” and such things should be punished, but not to the detriment of the war effort.
    2) We are killing innocent people – I am so tired of hearing the rhetoric of all the lives of innocent civilians that are being killed in Iraq. First of all, it’s exaggerated beyond all belief. But seriously, folks, if it is true, then WHO are killing all of these civilians? That’s right, the men and women of our armed forces.
    Believe whatever you want to believe, but it is hypocritical to be “against the war” yet “support our troops”. I bet you wouldn’t much support the soldiers in Hitler’s army. Well, what the heck’s the difference? If you think that Bush is so wrong about what’s going on, then how can you go fight for his “mistake”? Again, I fully accept if you are in the military and strongly disagree with the war, but you have to put that aside and WIN IT!
    There are, I’m sure, other reasons, but I think I’ve made my point. The lunacy of you left-wingers is beyond my comprehension.
    Love your writing Wil! Don’t love your politics Wil!

  9. Thank you all for expressing a non-hysterical viewpoint of the war. I’m a life-long Republican and I’m a little sick of the Iraq war too, but I agree with the motives for going there. I only wish cooler heads like yours could present the case in this manner on a national forum. Unfortunately, political prejuduce and a party lock-step attitude make both sides look ridiculous, and turn off people who could do some good in our system of government. Wil, I admire your passion greatly, but you don’t have to evicerate everyone who doesn’t agree with your viewpoint. By doing that you smother the dissention you claim to support.

  10. It is most certainly not hypocritical to support our troops while being against the war. It is a very simple and logical matter of supporting the people who have volunteered to follow the orders of the commander-in-chief, while completely disagreeing with the orders.
    What I could never understand is how anyone can say it’s unpatriotic to speak out against the policies of the government. Also, how can it possibly be unpatriotic to expect our government exhaust absolutely ALL options before sending our service men and women into battle.
    Personally, I feel that this president and his father before him, have absolutely no concept of how “real” Americans live. They have, after all only risked the lives of the poor people who’ve joined the military to try and get ahead. I suppose the Bushes and their friends might be thinking that this war is “working very well for them.”
    Wake up people. We’re at war because Americans don’t care anymore and people like GW know it. All he’s got to to do is keep repeating the same talking points and question the patriotism of those opposed to his policies. We’re too busy talking on our cell phones and downloading free music to get on the phone and call our congressmen. And why the hell should they listen to us anyway, half of us don’t even VOTE.
    Quit whining and JOIN THE FUCKING ARMY LADIES! Spend some time in the desert worrying about how your wife is paying the bills back home and whether you’ll ever get to see your baby’s face before some misguided, ignorant insurgent (NOT a “terrorist”) blows you to bits. After you’ve done that, you can come back and marvel at the lunacy of the left-wingers all you want.
    But, you might want to spend a little time learning what is actually happening rather than what Fox News is reporting.
    And that Hitler comparison is just plain ignorant. Educate yourselves, I BEG of you.

  11. Keep it coming Wil! Whether I agree or disagree with your comments, you have my respect for who you are and your ability to write. While, I like your autobiographical stories the best, your political commentary is needed as well. I am willing to look I my own beliefs even when I may disagree with you. Besides, the more you write, the more you are able to hone and effectively articulate your thoughts in a manner that provokes insight and self-reflection.
    The rest of my comments are most likely nothing but pointless drivel. However, there is major room for improvement in the the way politics are discussed. I have a PhD in psychology, so I am not a complete dolt. However, I have the hardest time buying into either party’s version of truth, or their evil characterizations of the opposite party. Why on Earth do people believe that just because an idea came from one party or the other, that idea is good or bad. To affiliate yourself with a political party “now-a-days” is almost akin to saying, “I am narrow-minded and do not have the ability to think for myself.” A good example of this is Ben Nelson, Democrat Senator from Nebraska. The guy thinks and votes like a Republican, but most Republicans chastise him for his evil democratic beliefs?! Okay, enough drivel.
    Blessings.

  12. When you attack another man’s family, and by that I mean his innocent children, then I agree that it is most certainly, not just politics.
    However, Mr. Schuberth already said it. What he said was his first thoughts on the subject. If he didn’t mean it, then he shouldn’t have said it. Like most politicians, he didn’t think before he spoke. Retracting the statement doesn’t mean anything other than you pissed too many people off and out of obligation or pressure, you have to apologize for it.
    To one who no longer agrees with the war and thinks that if those people want to blow themselves to bits, LET THEM DO IT, I was seriously offended at what he said. I have several family members and close and dear friends fighting for this war that they don’t agree with. Some day, a black car, an Army official and a priest are going to show up at my family’s doorstep to tell us that our loved one died fighting for the freedom that an entire country obviously doesn’t want.
    In short, apology not accepted.

  13. Most of the weapons that were not accounted for were chemical and biological, and thus not necessarily that effective in terms of killing people. If you released the toxins or whatever in an enclosed space, that would probably do it, but in the open and/or with uncooperative wind patterns, they just wouldn’t be very deadly. This is, of course, assuming that the weapons hadn’t degraded to a harmless state.
    In the absence of a clear and present danger, and given the existence of other nations with worse weapons, equally bad leaders, whatever, was going to war in Iraq a good decision, worth thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars?
    In the absence of a clear and present danger, with a population that is wary of overcommitting its military in overseas ventures, do you have enough justification to “sell” the war using imagery of a nuclear holocaust in one of our major cities?
    It just so happens that we didn’t find any WMD, but that’s not even the point.
    At best, the current administration is guilty of lethal misjudgments, miscalculations, and missteps in a matter of the gravest importance. For incompetence alone, I’d get rid of the whole lot of them.

  14. Thank you, Wil for speaking out in behalf for those of us who aren’t able to express themselves as eloquently as you are. I agreed with every word that you said in your reply to Mr. Schubert’s comments.
    I especially enjoyed how you reminded us what the “W” in George W. Bush stands for!

  15. Well, here I go, my first post here…
    I’m usually not one to ruin a perfectly good argument with actual information, but, in this case, I’ll make an exception:
    We know Saddam Hussein had WMD because we (including the previous George Bush) sold them to him. We subtracted those we knew he used, sold or disposed of, and, since the difference was a positive number, we “knew” he still had them. Although intelligence analysts raised the idea that Hussein might have used or sold WMD without our knowledge, that was ignored.
    We advanced a link between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks that was regarded as tenuous and unproven by intelligence professionals, both here and abroad. Ignoring the doubts about the intel, consider the sources thereof: people who had motive to feed such information to us, either for personal advantage, nationalism, or monetary gain.
    Does this mean I oppose our role in this war? Definitely. Whether the above was the product of mistake, willful ignorance, groupthink, electoral political calculation, or pure malice is irrelevant to me. My leaders failed me & my country, and, because of that, their policies deserve no sanction.
    How do I feel about our troops? I respect & honor them. I take part in fundraisers and participate in organizations like Books for Soldiers and the Sons of the American Legion. I personally enjoy the company of Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen. I’ve even dated more than a few. 🙂
    Our servicemembers go where we won’t, to do what we wouldn’t, not for their own gain (as warriors of the past did), but for the unselfish motive of doing a good for all of us. To serve is noble, in & of itself. And, in a military context, service means following orders, regardless of whether those orders are wise, just, or moral.
    Were I of an age to do so, I would offer my services. Daniel Schuberth is clearly of an age to offer his. Applying his logic, shouldn’t he be reporting to the nearest recruiting station? That’s where his logic fails. Just as he can agree with the war and yet not serve in it, Cornell du Houx can oppose the war yet give military service to his country.

  16. you guys crack me up.
    As a veteran, I personally had to kill someone that was merely defending their land against an “invading” army. That’s all they were told, or flat out, fucking understood. Grenada and Honduras both have their place in a bit of military history, but not near as much as what we’re doing in the middle-east.
    Since the days of Truman when WE created the state of Isreal, we’ve been mucking around in a land that we have ZERO place in. I’m not speaking of the Jewish settlers from America that went there, but in fact, our support for the natives of that land.
    Religion, not politics, is what that place has ALWAYS been about, and we have NO business there. Not then, and certainly not now.
    All it takes is watching that god damned video of Nick Berg to realize what animals the extremists are. I’m sorry that they’re there. I really am. But it’s the responsibility of those citizens there that don’t agree with the extremists, NOT WE Americans that object to their crueltry.
    How many lives have we lost there in a battle for which we not only can’t fathom, but which it’s just not our battle to fight.
    YOu want to end this fight over there. Encourage your citizens to support alternate energy, and the taxes to support it. It’s going to take the US government to battle the OPEC nations… we’re entirely too dependant on a resource that will eventually disappear, but more than that, one that’s KILLING US SLOWLY as we use it. It takes 10 gallons of crude oil to make one gallon of useable oil!!! We burn fossil fuels by the thousands of barrels to create electricity. Our support of automobiles that get horrid gas mileage only leads to this problem.
    In the seventies, we had a national urge to get away from pollutants, to hammer big business for their part in this problem… and suddenly, when the laws expired, the aresols were back, and the desire to not have fuel efficient vehicles likewise terminated.
    It is EVERYONE’s responsiblity to make our elected officials do their JOBS, which is to serve the public, not the self-interests of the rich and powerful.

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