No Pardon for the Thanksgiving Turkey

Every year on the eve of Thanksgiving the White House selects a turkey for the President to pardon, sparing it from ending up on the dinner table for the rest of its life. Last year President Bush pardoned not one but two turkeys. Although this annual ritual reportedly goes back at least 50 years to President Truman (although some say it hearkens back to Lincoln), it seems to me it is getting a bit out of hand and is sending the wrong message to terrorists. I think if this year the President reversed years of tradition and shocked the world by announcing that he was sentencing the turkey to death instead of pardoning it, the terrorists would realize that we really mean business.

Although President Bush cautioned the enemies of the U.S. not to take solace in the victory of Democrats, I don't think that message is sinking in. Some have become emboldened by the Democrats' rhetoric on Iraq, especially now that Henry Kissinger has joined this chorus and recommended that we cut and walk very quickly from Iraq. What's more, sentencing Saddam Hussein to death did not have the intended effect on the American election nor on public opinion in Iraq.

But imagine if President Bush denied the turkey a pardon, signaling a new get-tough attitude. Instead of giving a jokey speech full of holiday bromides, he could show up in the Rose Garden this holiday season wielding an axe and after condemning the turkey to death, he could carry out the execution immediately, the way they do in China. Just to be on the safe side, in case the turkey tries to get away, Vice President Cheney could stand on the sidelines with his shotgun to make sure it doesn't get far. Pictures of the President beheading the turkey would be on the front pages of every newspaper in the Middle East and on Al-Jazeera, replacing the usual pictures of terrorists beheading hostages. That would put the fear of God into those who think they can push the United States around.

Like the video of the swaggering President landing on an aircraft carrier to declare "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, footage of the President chasing a turkey around the Rose Garden with an axe on live television would play endlessly on cable and on YouTube, which would help raise the President's poll numbers here at home. It would remind people that they elected a man who as governor of Texas for five years presided over the executions of 152 people, and as President for six years has pardoned only 69 people and a dozen turkeys.

It would also help rescue this uniquely American holiday from the political correctness it has succumbed to. Most people emphasize the insipid and sentimental aspects of the origins of Thanksgiving, which is based on how the Wampanoag Indians helped the Pilgrims survive a difficult winter in the New World. They portray the story as an example of peace and brotherhood and tend to downplay what happened in the aftermath, how the rapidly expanding Massachusetts colony was later forced to push Wampanoag off of their land and eventually had to exterminate most of them. Some of their descendants are still trying to get Federal recognition. In the end the Pilgrims were thankful not merely for the food they received but also for the fact that they were not Indians. The true meaning of Thanksgiving is that we are thankful that we live in a country that does not shrink from what needs to done. That's why they don't celebrate Thanksgiving anywhere else in the world, except in Canada, which doesn't really count.

If President Bush served this year's turkey at the White House Thanksgiving dinner instead of sparing its life, I'm sure some turkey rights activists would be up in arms. And Turkey, which abolished the death penalty to join the European Union, would no doubt file a diplomatic protest. But I think seeing President Bush win a battle of man over turkey would restore the confidence of the American people in their President. Seeing the President win a victory is something that all Americans would be thankful for, even if it was only a triumph over a bird.

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Jon Swift, Iraq, War on Terror, Terrorism, Bush, Cheney, Thanksgiving, Turkey, Henry Kissinger, Wampanoag, Indians, Native Americans, Politics, Foreign Policy