By John Burtis
Friday, September 8, 2006
I don't understand why Richard armitage won't come clean. In america today he won't face any real repercussions. and if he did, he can always become a Democrat.
There are many kinds of courage.
Courage in leadership, like that evinced by america during the first six dreadful months of World War II, when we suffered so many grievous defeats.
In that short period of time, we lost the battleships and other vessels at Pearl Harbor, the air force and land forces in the biggest surrender of US forces to date in the Philippines, the losses of Wake and Guam, the sinking of three US aircraft carriers, and the loss of many other surface combatants, to say the least. We watched as the Japanese swept across the Pacific, from the Indian Ocean to Midway atoll. Yet we chose to continue the conflict, resolutely, with no other thought except the eventual victory, despite our enormous losses of men and materiel.
Then there is the courage of men at arms, no more clearly illustrated than at the battle of Iwo Jima. There the US Marines stormed ashore, under merciless shellfire, and captured the small, pork chop shaped volcanic island from the Japanese in early 1945, despite tremendous casualties.
Their unquestioned valor caused Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal to remark to General Holland Smith that it would mean, "...a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years." 6,000 Marines were killed and some 21,000 were wounded in seizing the eight-square-mile island.
Below all that is found the bravery of the individual. and it comes in many types, flavors and values. It can be found in combat, the far extreme, or on the smaller, to overcome fear of public speaking, overcoming trepidation in taking tests, the terror in front of oral boards, foreboding at the altar – the gamut of personal disquietude.
But, for the most part, outside of military action and certain vocations like mining, the police, and structural firefighting, the majority of individual choices won't result in a death sentence – save those associated with asocial behavior.
Today we are confronted with the madness of Richard armitage, who just won't own up to his leading role in the whole sordid mess of the Fitzgerald perlustration – the illicit carnal knowledge of Valerie Plame's identity before the interminable and wicked partisan inquisition began.
and you'd think, judging from the man's reluctance to speak up, that his acknowledgement must carry the same weight of arms as that transported by the valiant Marines trudging up Mt. Suribachi or struggling through the deep black volcanic sands - two impediments readily found on Iwo Jima.
Or, on the lighter side, you imagine that Richard armitage must be stricken with a crippling phobia like those which strike so many of us when it's time to give a talk to an assembled crowd of townsfolk, to the local Rotary Club, or to a crowd of eager drunks at a tap room.
Yet Mr. armitage suffered no such disability while serving as Mr. Powell's hatchet-man, where he clearly articulated his opposition to the President's evidence and later calls for the invasion of Iraq. No, he didn't equivocate there. One always knew where Mr. armitage stood – at Mr. Bush's back.
So why is Mr. armitage keeping silent now?
He must know that when a Democrat falls on his sword amid a flurry of "sorrys," and "we need to move ons," that he'll eventually be rewarded for his thoroughgoing failures, however large and severely damaging to the country they may have been.
all he need do in this regard is to cast a pair of blood shot eyes at the rapidly accruing personal fortunes of Mr. Jimmy Carter or those of that most fabulous of all nomadic roadmen, Mr. Bill Clinton, to understand how profoundly enriching the cheap jacking of america can be.
Or perhaps, Mr. armitage remains silent because he is simply not yet ready to become a Democrat.
Lord knows that if he does he'll be on easy street forever. The book promos will fall on him like manna from heaven. The speaking stipends will enrich him. John Kerry will cast a more understanding patrician gaze in his direction, while sending him a more upscale phial of toilet water. The Kennedy "School" at Harvard will ensconce him next the other righties gone lefty. The New York Times will extol him for his acuteness.
and still, Mr. armitage keeps still.
It's all so terribly funny because if he made a clean breast of it, nothing at all would happen to him, especially in view of the cakewalk Sandy Berger took. and if he went Democrat, he could become richer than he could possibly dream.
Where else can a guy keep the President of the United States tied to a pitch dipped pole above a kerosene soaked pile of tinder dry brush in front of a man holding a torch for three years and have nothing happen to him?
In the present-day United States, silly.
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