It ill behoves us, safely this side of the Pond, who have never seen military service, and are now to old and unfit to do so to to get involved in a "firefight" about who was is or should be a posthomous here.

But for what its worth - I have a respect for George Bush Snr - Any man who volunteers to fly off carriers 1n the 1940's is no coward, and has a moral right to make military decisions.

A George W Bush Jnr did not serve his 365 days in South East Asia, if accounts are correct influnce was used to find him a nice safe sinecure.

Powell spent his time "up the sharp end"

Cheney did not.

All of the above were in a position to make that decision on where they would serve.

Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves had word to descibe this. So did Wlifred Owen

"If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori."

Gareth - Turned down by the Royal Navy 1973 on Medical Grounds.