Projection

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on December 27, 2004

It's a psychological term for attributing your own opinions, insecurities on someone else. Today's case study is Wade R. Sanders, who has an op-ed piece in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

It's readily apparent that the only person Sanders dislikes more than President Bush is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Most of the piece is the standard screed that Bush is responsible for the mistreatment [not torture] at Abu Ghraib because he and Rumsfeld issued memos telling the troops to pile prisoners in naked pyramids, etc.

Sanders also peddles an old, bogus complaint that has been thoroughly discredited.

It is clear that President Bush is enamored with and relishes his honorific as "commander in chief." More than any other president, he likes to associate himself with the military. More than any other president in history, he has used massed troops in uniform as a background for his speeches (even though it is often obvious that the troops aren't thrilled with being props). Further, he is the only president to wear a military uniform while in office (even President Eisenhower, a former military man of some substance, refused to wear any military gear while president).

More than any other President? That's truly a subjective analysis -- one that is impossible to really prove or disprove. However, it is one that was made before by liberals bemoaning Bush wearing a flight jacket on occasion. And when they made that complaint, the blogosphere was quick to demolish it.

Clinton wearing flight jacket

Yep, there's a guy who dodged the draft and protested American policy overseas in a military flight jacket. Then there's the Democrats' favorite president of the past 50 years, JFK.

JFK in flight jacket

Sanders also suggests that the troops don't particularly like President Bush. They are somehow resentful of being used, as Sanders characterizes it, as props. I must confess that the media has apparently been doing quite a bit of a propaganda job, because whenever I see video of Bush with the troops they seem to genuinely like him. And then there's this.

Despite a year of ferocious combat, mounting casualties and frequent deployments, support for the war in Iraq remains very high among the active-duty military, according to a Military Times Poll.

Sixty-three percent of respondents approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, and 60% remain convinced it is a war worth fighting. Support for the war is even greater among those who have served longest in the combat zone: Two-thirds of combat vets say the war is worth fighting. [emphasis added]

Talk about unlucky timing for Sanders.

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