"Baby Alex"

In my last post, I talked about an “OH!” moment I had when I was a young Captain. I think the Moveon.org folks need to have an “OH!” moment and realize a few things that most of the country has understood for a while now. I think that most everyone has heard of or seen the “Baby Alex” political ad. You know the one where the mother holds the baby and tells Senator McCain she can’t have her baby for his 100-year Iraqi war. The political ad makes it appear as if the President has the authority to order citizens to serve in the military. That’s pure unadulterated B.S. The President can’t do it alone. We don’t have a draft. We have a volunteer military. A national draft would, literally, take an act of Congress; something that isn’t about to happen anytime soon. Frankly, most military folks I know like it that way. The Moveon.org folks also ignore the idea that, with a volunteer military, the young men and women who serve do so because they want to. Some serve despite the opposition of their parents. Now if Baby Alex wanted to serve in the military when he turned 18-years old, he could; even though any McCain Presidency would be long over. His mother’s selfish opposition wouldn’t matter one bit.

Like most of the liberal elite, Moveon.org is invested in the idea that the military is a faceless machine consisting of low-class, low-educated, low-motivated thugs who can’t make it in civilian society (remember Senator Kerry’s claim that if you don’t study you’ll get stuck in Iraq). This political ad shows that Moveon.org, like most liberal elite, take our freedoms and values for granted and hold the organizations that do the most to protect them in contempt. Moveon.org tries their best to play on a mother’s fears for the future of her child. Well I’ve been there. My children serve, and I’ve sent my son to war. It’s hard and it will never be easy for any parent. But it was my children’s choice to serve and my choice to be proud of them. Like most who actually do serve in the military, my children are highly educated, highly motivated and highly intelligent young people. (Okay, minor parental puffery allowed.) I know that they serve, in part, because they believe our Nation and its freedoms, and its citizens are worth protecting; even those liberal elite who believe the protectors are uneducated thugs.

As an aside, I do have to say that I tend to feel sorry for poor Baby Alex. His mother certainly won’t teach him the joy of service to others, the cost of freedom, or the value of patriotism. Her type of selfish disdain for the sacrifice of others teaches only narcissism and elitism. Is this the kind of change that we want for our Country? Is this the kind of new hope for the future we envision? Surely not.

UPDATE: Check out Some Soldier's Mom and her "Dear Alex's Mom." Yeah, what she said, too!