WASHINGTON – Bill and Georgia Thomas reported they were elated Monday when they met in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush to present him with a Purple Heart.
"We were just absolutely bowled over. Without reservation, it was one of the highlights of our life. He was such a gracious host," Thomas said. "It was just an incredible, incredible experience."
The couple was able to meet with President Bush for about 20 minutes to present him with one of three Purple Hearts that Bill Thomas received during his service in Vietnam.
"He said he didn't feel like he had earned it," Thomas said, noting the president looked thinner in person than on television.
Thomas said he and his wife came up with the unprecedented idea to present the president with the Purple Heart over breakfast one morning a few months ago as they discussed the verbal attacks, both foreign and domestic, the commander in chief has withstood during his time in office.
"We feel like emotional wounds and scars are as hard to carry as physical wounds," Thomas said.
This story is jaw-dropping on all kinds of levels. Consider: Then-Congressman George H. W. Bush used his considerable political power to jump Junior to the top of a list of over 500 applicants for his Texas Air National Guard position as a pilot, despite his receiving the minimum passing score on the pilot entrance aptitude test, and listing no other qualifications. In a 1994 interview, Bush stated that he joined the Guard because "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." After the American taxpayers paid $1 million to train the young aviator, he went AWOL.
The record of how the president and his Republican cohorts "support the troops" is damning. We could fill pages of this blog with outrages, but just look here, here, here, here, and here. Remember the Walter Reed hospital scandal? Then there is the spoiled food, the contaminated water, and the extended tours.
Apparently, Mr. Thomas has failed to notice how the president and his henchmen treat decorated veterans. John Kerry isn't the only military hero victimized by BUSHCO's vicious smears. John Murtha, John McCain, and Max Cleland are other notable cases. Mr. Thomas has a right to do whatever he wishes with his medals, but George Bush, a man who likes to dress up like a soldier but didn't want to be one, a man who still hasn't attended a single fallen soldiers' burial, had no right to participate in this grotesque sham.
