Bush Has the Mooching Old Booze Hound Vote Wrapped Up

When Bush and his henchman Rumsfeld spoke to the American Legion, I was appalled that the old veterans applauded their idiotic statements. Wouldn’t folks who had experienced war first hand know better than to buy into their warmongering claptrap? Then I remembered that these were legionnaires, a group of old codgers who are milking their military service for all it’s worth. Many more thoughtful veterans would just as soon forget the wasted years they spent at war and embrace the lives they subsequently lived in peacetime. Not so the legionnaires who make a full time job of being WW2 veterans and basking in the glory of having made war and come out alive.

The American Legion and the VFW have two main functions. First and foremost, they provide an excuse for old guys to hang out in a bar for hours on end and avoid their wives. It used to be that it was a little disgraceful to spend time and money in a tavern instead of being at home with your family, and the exception was the service club or cultural heritage club that served as a cover for boozing it up. Cricket teams also serve this function. Drinking at these clubs is cast as a public service rather than a vice. Nowadays, it is not so big a deal to stop off for a drink or two, and these social clubs are dying off in many places for want of younger members.

The second main function is to lobby the US government for more handouts to veterans in their situation. Their aim is to separate the rest of the public from as much money as they can and have it spent for their benefit and comfort. Such an organization would tend to support continued warmongering and militarization. If war and soldiering lost any of its significance in our society, their own glory would be diminished, and government largesse to veterans might come into question.

I should not have wasted the psychic energy being appalled. I shouldn’t have any expectations about a bunch of boozy old moochers.