[lbo-talk] Perle snaps at Steve from Minneapolis, "What do YOU know about my family??!!"

[Stephen Philion]

Found an effective way to get under Richard Perle's skin this morning.  He
was on Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning program this morning, a call in
show, pushing his new book calling for endless war.
I asked him how come, if the war on terror is such an important war that all
americans should make sacrifices for,  aren't Bush's nephews or Cheney's
nephews, grandchildren, or Richard Perle's grandchildren, nephews, signing
up for the war against Iraq, the one for the missing WMDs?  The host of the
program asked me to clarify something and I followed up noting that
Minnesota Norm Coleman's children, for example, are going to college instead
of signing up for the "war".  Jeb Bush's sons, in their twenties, the
same....

Perle got all feather ruffled and snapped back angrily, "What do you know
about my family, first of all?" A funny response, if he wanted he could have
rebuffed me by stating that he had family members dying.  Then he claimed I
was 'demogoging' and went on with the usual rhetoric about a 'volunteer
army'.

The show's format doesn't allow follow up questions, but the host pressed
him on the 'shared sacrifice' issue.  He had trouble dealing with that one
too, a hard start for a program on which he was trying to push his call for
war.  Really every member of the adminstration should be called on this war
on terror hype in the end.

I don't mean to make the argument that *only* lower income men and women die
in this war against Iraq, but it is a transparent fact that those dying or
getting their limbs blown off are not the relatives of anyone in the Bush
administration.  How odd, such a major 'threat' is seen to exist, yet the
leading war hawks' children stay home and choose not to fight.

I can put up the link to the exchange later if folks like.

steve