"We have a profile we're looking for"

When a man loves a woman . . . Sen. John Warner has no shame, as his absurd marriage to Liz Taylor in 1976 (above) and his pathetic attempt at intimidating Lt. General David Petraeus yesterday attest. (©2005 TopFoto / AP)

"Addressing the crisis in leadership among American boys and young men" was the topic of pc-lite Esquire author Tom Chiarella's brave new article last summer, "The Problem with Boys." The soon-to-be commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, Lt. General David Petraeus, was one of the earnest author's expert witnesses. We stumbled upon the thoughtful if somewhat annoyingly naive piece as we were getting up to speed on the man of the hour that Thomas P.M. Barnett in another Esquire article called "the closest thing the Army has to its own Lawrence of Arabia." Chiarella skirts delicately around the edges of the insidious Marxist feminist anti-boys-will-be-boys movement of the last few decades that has turned Mother Nature's "snakes and snails and puppy dogs' tails" into carriers of a "disorder" that must be kept at bay by the administration of Ritalin and other inadequately tested drugs that kill the soul and may precipitate murderous acts [see Columbine]. Speaking of a young, rudderless friend named Gerald, Ciarella -- seemingly channeling John "Stuck-in-Iraq" Kerry -- writes:

He's got no way to grab on to the culture of work. Nowhere to go, except Iraq maybe. They keep raising the bonus for enlistment; they keep tempting him to put himself in the mix. I always think he's a bag of flesh to them, a bullet stopper.

Reading that military-culture-challenged bit of drivel, we gagged and nearly clicked away in disgust, but remembering that Lt. General Petraeus had brought us to the site, we read on and were duly rewarded with Chiarella's reportage of the General's take:

I tell him about the boys I know, about how I'm concerned that the Army may be the only option for a kid like Gerald. "That's the problem," he says. "It may not be an option for him. We have a profile we're looking for; we need high school graduates who are physically fit and driven by the desire for self-improvement. We need men who are prepared to be better soldiers.

"I see the same things you do. The numbers are declining among boys," he says, clearing his throat. "I always call them men.

"What boys need," says Petraeus, "are role models, parental supervision, encouragement to pursue excellence in all that they do, especially in education, where we must do whatever is necessary to keep them in school." Old stuff, but tried and true and often lost amidst today's multiculti pc cacaphony:

They need direction to stay on the straight and narrow, a push to participate in athletics and extracurricular activities, help to pursue a healthy lifestyle, recognition that they must be accountable for their actions, and reinforcement of good performance.

We couldn't help but think of those aging Peter-Pan boys -- and girls -- in the Senate who made such fools of themselves yesterday when they bypassed the opportunity to ask General Petraeus to educate them -- and us -- with his vast store of knowledge about the subject at hand, the "way forward" in Iraq. Instead they used the opportunity of Petraeus's confirmation hearing to -- what else? -- grandstand at will. Our favorite exchange came after Sen. Lieberman asked Petraeus whether Senate resolutions condemning White House Iraq policy "would give the enemy some comfort":

Petraeus agreed they would, saying, "That's correct, sir."

Liz Taylor's ex, Sen. John Warner, went ballistic, warning Petraeus not to step on prima donnas' toes:

We're not a division here today of patriots who support the troops and those who are making statements and working on resolutions that could be translated as aiding and abetting the enemy. We're trying to exercise the fundamental responsibilities of our democracy and how this nation has two co-equal branches of the government, each bearing its own responsibilities.

I hope that this colloquy has not entrapped you into some responses that you might later regret. I wonder if you would just give me the assurance that you'll go back and examine the transcript as to what you replied with respect to certain of these questions and review it, because we want you to succeed.

We expect intimidation from the left and from campaign finance "reform" types like John McCain. How disappointing to see John Warner going wobbly when the going gets tough. As Gen. Petraeus told Esquire author Tom Chiarella, "We have a profile we're looking for." Would that our fellow citizens who vote these people into office had such standards.

Comments

[Laura Lee Donoho]

I just got home a little while ago after attending a required professional development class on parental communication.

In the class we were instructed that kids no longer have the same belief system that those of us who were brought up in two parent households do.

So instead of giving us ideas about how to help construct proper character in the children they gave us pablum. We can't question the parents about why they are sending their children to school with dirty clothes and dirty mouths.

If we lose our Army and leaders such as Petraeus we are sunk because, besides the church, it is the only organization in our country which trains boys to be men. (and trains women to be tough and think logically.)

Public education is a joke.

[Gayle Miller]

I am currently reading a biography of Elizabeth Taylor by J. Randy Taraborrelli in which he opines that Warner married Elizabeth Taylor strictly for his own political purposes. He was running for the Senate nomination and needed both her star power and money to assist him in that aim. Once he had the Senate seat, he basically either ignored or ABUSED her emotionally (apparently she was abused to a greater or lesser degree by every single one of her husbands in one way or another) until she'd finally had enough and fled for her own sake. It also mentions that his "gentleman's farm" was purchased with the divorce settlement he received from his FIRST WIFE - he seems to have a lot in common with John F. Kerry, don't you think?

John Warner is no gentleman - and he deserves NO RESPECT from anyone.

[Gayle Miller]

And the raising of sons by feminist mothers sometimes leads those young men into a rudderless existence, comprised of "if it feels good do it" mentality, absolutely no moral compass, an addiction to drugs and death at age 20 from an overdose of multiple drugs. Petraeus is not at all off the mark in his comments and Warner is WAY out of line.

[goomp]

Where have the honorables gone. Our President, Senator Lieberman, General Petraeus and of course others, but people of honor seem scarce in our governments today. It is up to the people of our country to demand that those who ask to receive our votes be honest and principled.

[Tara]

Warner will claim he supports the troops yet by his own words he clearly doesn't support their new mission .

If he had any balls, he'd state outright that a vote should be taken to defund the war.

Instead, he takes the coward's way out by hiding behind a resolution that will succeed in only demoralizing our soldiers while showing our enemies we are soft and divided and incapable of sustaining what it takes to achieve victory in Iraq.