High life
It shouldn't happen to a vet
Taki
Iwould have given anything to be in Washington DC last Sunday when the draft-dodger addressed the brave men who had answered their country's call. What can he possibly say to these veterans? When John F. Kennedy spoke to veterans of for- eign wars he had the credentials. He had lost a brother and was himself wounded in action. LBJ had lied about his war record, but at least he enlisted. Nixon, Ford and Bush had volunteered and seen action, and 'You were right. It wasn't David Attenborough.' only Ronald Reagan had stayed behind — a fact he made up for by beating the Evil Empire and then some.
Only Clinton dodged and he is now commander-in-chief of the world's only superpower. Pass the sick bag, Hillary. If the sitcom groupie had any shame he would stay away from Memorial Day festiv- ities, as well as from West Point and Anna- polis. Last week he went up the Hudson and bullshitted his way with the cadets. In fact, he got a standing ovation. Somebody should have sprayed a line of yellow down his back.
However shrill I sound, my respect and admiration for men who have fallen on the field of honour is such that I feel like retch- ing when I see Clinton's open mouth, and it is open most of the time. The thing I'm proudest of is that on 29 October 1940 my mother had a husband and five brothers racing to the front. I imagine Fonda, Streisand and those ghastly Thomasons must think them fools, but then in today's culture they are. Which brings me to the point I wish to make.
When I read in the Sunday Telegraph that Harrods gave a lunch for 65 holders of the Victoria Cross, I decided to shop there once again. They were flown in not by the Government but by an Arab entrepreneur. Those Whitehall types should be shot for that. Six hundred years before the birth of Christ, Solon the Athenian lawmaker had decreed that the state should undertake the support of the families of those who had fallen on the field of honour. Better yet, he legislated that the maximum salaries and benefits of Olympic champions should not exceed those given to the families of those who had died for their country.
Now that's what I call a just law. Those American Afro-freaks who are paid $30 million per annum to throw a ball through a hoop would not have lasted a minute in my old home town. I believe in market forces and free enterprise as much as any- one, but is it fair for old soldiers to die alone in nursing homes while Elton John spends more on his hairpieces than the Government does on them?
And speaking of vets in nursing homes. Billy Conn, the great light-heavyweight. died in one from pneumonia last week. Conn had Joe Louis beaten when he decid- ed to slug it out with him in the 13th round. The Brown Bomber put the lighter man to sleep. Conn enlisted, fought in the war, and re-fought Louis in 1946. This time he lasted only eight rounds. I once sat in the back seat of a car with him and he looked verY ill-at-ease. When I asked a common friend what was wrong, the friend said Billy Conn did not wish to give the impression he vvas coming on strong to my wife.
It may have been a bit over the top, but that's the kind of man Conn was. He was very good-looking, and at age 72 attacked a pistol-carrying robber who was beating store manager. Billy Conn was everything Clinton isn't, and that says it all.
Previous page
