EXHIBIT B: ROOSEVELT

"All men who feel any power in battle know what it is like when the wolf rises in his heart."
--Theodore Roosevelt

Many modern presidents and politicians come from a class of men that use their wealth and family influence to avoid going to war. Cheney, Bush Jr., and Clinton all squirmed and weaseled their way out of Vietnam. Teddy Roosevelt, on the other hand, resigned from his post as Undersecretary of the Navy so he could fight on the front lines in the Spanish-American War, a war which he did everything in his power to start.

He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of a rugged band of western toughs and eastern socialites known as the "Rough Riders," and became a national hero by leading the gang of misfits on the legendary charge up San Juan Hill. He cajoled his green and fearful troops, yelling, "Are you afraid to stand up when I am on horseback?", then rode pell-mell up the hillside, rushing towards the embedded enemy above. One witness to the madcap charge reported, "No man who saw Roosevelt take that ride expected he would finish it alive."

Not only did he show bravery (or some would say lunacy) during his time with the Rough Riders, he also tremendously enjoyed himself; because what good is a bloody war if you can't have fun? After believing himself to have shot a Spanish soldier, who apparently went down "like a jackrabbit," he proceeded to measure his kill's height, as one would with, say, a jackrabbit. Taking in for the first time the grim specter of death that lie all around him, the never sentimental Roosevelt marveled excitedly, "Look at all those damned Spanish dead!" A friend observed that, "No hunting trip so far has ever equaled it in Theodore's eyes... T was just reveling in victory and gore." One can only imagine the tears of joy he would have shed had he lived to fight in World War I, or rode along on the Enola Gay to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.... it would have been his greatest hunting trip ever.

RELATED LINKS:
Read the case for Roosevelt
Read the case for Ford

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