The True Veterans Day

My thanks to Tom Bevan of the invaluable RealClearPolitics for doing my post-election work for me by analyzing the results of the Democrats' "Fightin' Dems" effort. (Also see the details by Beltway Blogroll's Danny Glover.)

I first wrote about this cynical deception that at best it may influence some marginal votes, and continued to follow the story as this Howard Dean-Kos enterprise morphed through several incarnations to finally be lambasted by even FactCheck.org for its "completely erroneous and scurrilous attack" ads.

Here's my record:
The Democrats' '06 replay of veterans gambit

Dems Cynical Veterans Politics 2006

“Band of Brothers” Redux

Democrats’ 2006 National Security Strategy

Dem Vets Get No Respect

The Veterans Who Couldn't Shoot Straight

Tom Bevans answers, "how did the Fightin' Dems do?":

Was there any discernable benefit to the strategy of recruiting candidates with military service in their background?...the answer seems to be a pretty clear "no." ...

There's really no indication that the status of being a veteran helped any of the winners. Conversely, it's not at all clear in the races "Fightin' Dems" lost that another candidate without military service wouldn't have run equally as well or better....

There is one exception. I think you could make a persuasive argument that Jim Webb's status as a decorated war veteran made just enough of a difference in Virginia to prove decisive.

As we approach the true Veterans Day on November 11, it's good to note that neither are we veterans to be used or fools, nor are we to be treated as "Tommies."

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
--Rudyard Kipling

As the official Veterans Day poster for 2006 says:

We aren't to be discarded, nor are strategies -- domestic or in war -- to treat lightly the impact on morale of our efforts being wasted or abandoned, under whatever smooth talk may be weaseled out over coming months.

PLEASE do your part, both in the coming debates, and in helping our brave men and women through the many charitable and support efforts you'll find at this page, Military Connection, and this current successful blog campaign.