He Had No Respect for Our Military Then

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Recently George H.W. Bush was at a little family reunion in the White House. Since 9/11 the father has become convinced that confronting terrorism is "the toughest problem facing any President since Abraham Lincoln." On that day, 41 looked up at the wall in the President's study and once again saw what he calls "a glorious picture." The painting, by George Healy, depicts a meditative Lincoln meeting in 1865 on board the River Queen, anchored in the James River near Richmond, Va., with Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman and Admiral David Dixon Porter. The picture is named The Peacemakers, and the men are planning the end of the Civil War. In the small window behind Lincoln, the viewer can see a rainbow against a threatening sky.

The elder Bush believes that out of the dark war clouds of the moment another rainbow is coming. In a year he plans to celebrate his 80th birthday with another parachute jump and a few years after that to stand on the bridge of the new aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush as it heads to sea on its maiden voyage. He's not all that worried after all.