On the one hand, I felt it might be a good idea to read what Bush was saying on Memorial Day. I glanced at Google News and saw a story about Bush at some ceremony, no doubt piously claiming that he honored the troops. But I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I just couldn’t stomach it today.

Here’s a guy who has metaphorically defecated on the troops since before he was even president. The act of not only approving of the Vietnam War but also admonishing his Yale classmates for thinking of dodging the draft–and then using his wealth and privilege to dodge it himself–was the first such act of disrespect. That disrespect became more clear as I watched a 60 Minutes piece on Iowa Guardsmen called to serve in Iraq. One was in law school, but withdrew to serve in the war. There are others like him, most notably Pat Tillman, who gave up a lucrative football contract to serve. Place them next to a young George W. Bush, begging for deferments and then using daddy’s connections to get him a safe National Guard post stateside–and not even bothering to serve just that easy stint. After the same pissant of a young man sneered at college classmates for thinking of going to Canada. This is the character of George W. Bush, a man who doesn’t deserve to call himself a member of the same Guard as the magnificent young men he himself sends to fight and die.

But it was when he became president that the real harm began.

Part of what helped him get into a position in the polls where some Florida election fraud could help get him into office, was his campaign position that Clinton had virtually emasculated the military. Untrue, of course–Clinton was following the same path Bush Sr. had set at the end of the Cold War–but Bush Jr. used the lie effectively, his first baby steps at using the military as a political prop.

However, it hasn’t been the use of troops as a PR backdrop or captive friendly audience that has brought real harm; such is merely indicative of Bush’s willingness to use the image of the military shamelessly, like when he dressed up in his jump suit and had a pilot land him on an aircraft carrier purely for show. That is by far the most innocent of Bush’s relationship with the troops.

The real damage started in full force with Iraq. Bush refused to listen to the generals, refused to ask the country to sacrifice, and so sent to Iraq enough troops to win the initial fighting (“Mission Accomplished!”), but not nearly enough to hold Iraq together. Bush sent them there without the equipment they needed; very early in the war we started hearing stories of family members forced to purchase standard military equipment–especially flak jackets, but also so much else–and mail it to their sons, brothers, and fathers in the field. Some soldiers were even forced to dig through garbage to find body armor they needed to survive. It’s not as if this could not have been foreseen–Bush was moving pieces into place so far in advance that these shortages should have been seen to well before the fighting started. But Bush didn’t give a crap about whether or not a soldier had the armor needed to save his life. When called to task for neglecting the troops, Bush and his cohorts blew off the lack of planning with the flippant phrase, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” Then they blamed such lacks to slow production or other such bullshit–and never apologized when it was shown that they simply neglected to put in the orders. Soldiers died because of this. Many died. That conservatives don’t make a big deal about this much themselves shows how much they care about soldiers as well.

Bush did not honor the troops when he neglected to craft an exit strategy (any exit strategy). Nor when he neglected to protect arms caches, instead protecting oil facilities; when Iraqis looted, Rumsfeld said for Bush, “in a free country people are free to do bad things, like looting and robbing.” And so the insurgents got their hands on arms and explosives that they use to kill American soldiers to this day. Bush did not honor the troops when he decided to abandon America’s long stand against torture, instead encouraging it, leading to Abu Ghraib.

But what happened when Bush was criticized for not sending in enough troops? (“I listened to the generals!”) What happened when Bush was criticized for not guarding the weapons? (“It’s not me you’re criticizing, it’s the troops!”) What happened when Bush was criticized for Abu Ghraib? (“It was troops who got out of control, we never authorized that!”) That’s right… time and time again, when things went wrong, somehow it was never Bush that was to be criticized… he always dumped the blame on the troops. Most often, he did this by shifting blame–when Bush was criticized, he claimed it was the soldiers who were really being criticized–thus using the honor, bravery, and heroism of the troops as cover for his sorry political ass. And every time it was “criticize the troops, or criticize nobody.” Nobody honors the troops by being such a sorry-assed coward.

But the use of soldiers to cover his ass did not end with that. When Abu Ghraib was getting headlines, the Bush administration used Pat Tillman, a man with real honor and integrity, to bail them out. How? By lying about his death. Lying to the grieving family members so the administration could use their dead son as a political PR device. Does any man who honors the troops do that? Hell, no.

Neither did it stop when the troops got home. Pay cut, benefits cut, medical care skimped on, veteran’s hospitals falling to pieces. Bush was happy to cash in on the automatic respect the presidency demanded, to be gifted with their purple hearts, to make the obligatory visit with the cameras rolling, always with the cameras rolling. But only to his own benefit.

Did Bush attend a single funeral of an American soldier? Not that I ever heard of. He did visit a memorial service for a fallen Australian soldier–a funeral that the widow was callously uninvited to, lest her presence be uncomfortable for Bush. And in the U.S., Bush did not even allow returning coffins to be photographed. It would be too embarrassing for the administration to officially recognize that our soldiers had given their lives for their country. If it was still widespread to use silver and golden stars in a home’s windows to show family members who served and who died, Bush would probably try to ban the use of the gold stars. This is how we honor our bravely fallen? Hell, no.

Hell, Bush couldn’t even be bothered to spend one minute a day signing form letters to the families of fallen soldiers. It just wasn’t worth it until somebody found out and embarrassed him with it.

So I hope you will forgive me if I do not wish to wade hip-deep in callous lies and hideously insincerely sentiments, the flowery language of speechwriters, language Bush would not think to waste time on except for that he can squeeze yet another PR event in which he can take the luster of the honor of the troops and try to rub some of its magic on his oily, pusillanimous hide.

This is not a man who could ever honor the troops, because of what he has done, unapologetically, and continues to do to the troops. This is a man who does not deserve to lick the boots of the men and women who serve where Bush fled, people who fought so Bush could steal their honor, soldiers who died so Bush could use their sacrifice as a political tool.

Our soldiers deserve far better than that. Our soldiers deserve to come home, only they won’t, not yet. Why not? Because when the American people spoke in the last election, they sent to Washington representatives they hoped would stop the war. But Bush twisted their cries of protest into a claim that they wanted him to surge, killing even more of our soldiers. Then, when faced with a popular demand to eventually end the war, Bush held the troops hostage, threatening to leave them in Iraq without funds needed to survive. And I think we all believe he would do that.

That is Bush’s memorial to the troops: “You are nothing more than a tool. You are fools who could not get out of fighting like I did. Fight and die for my hubris, for my campaign contributors, and I will use your deaths to pave the way for more, to aggrandize my own image. Survive and return home and you will find I spend your benefits and medicare care on my cronies. Either way, once I am through with my photo op with you, you can burn in hell for all I care.”

Those are Bush’s actual proclamations, because, after all, actions speak far louder than words.