By:Jerry Burke
I was born at the wrong time. Up until the 1960s, men were expected to be macho and strong-willed. Then came the Woman's Lib movement. Overnight, it was expected of men to be caring and in touch with their feelings.
But by the time my hormones began to bubble up like Mount St. Helen's, the signals became crossed once again. Women apparently needed strong men who weren't afraid of their feelings. Why didn't they ask for a flying pony at the same time? Suddenly, all those years of sensitivity training seemed wasted, as the young ladies preferred "bad boys" or "rich boys" or "other girls." I felt gypped.
In today's world, being a sensitive guy gets you three things. One, it assures you of having lots of friends who are girls. Which is good, to a point. Unfortunately, it also gets you the line, "You're the kind of guy I'm looking for when I'm ready to settle down." Which, in turn, gets you rave reviews for that "sense of humor" the ladies keep gushing about.
So just when I'm ready to pack it all in, buy the Camero and move back in with my mother (cause you ladies seem to love that about a Long Island man), the sensitivity debate reaches a new low. Last week, Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking to a room full of loyalty-pledge signing veterans, called John Kerry's resolve to fight a "sensitive" war against terror paramount to comforting the enemy.
Man, somebody is touchy.
What Kerry was saying was that America had to be sensitive to our allies in gathering intelligence. You know, like not outing top double agents in order to justify raising terror alerts or demonizing countries that don't think invading Iraq will end terrorism because the guys who attacked you are still in the mountains of Pakistan.
Perhaps most damning to Mr. Cheney's assertions that Kerry is a wimp is the fact that running a sensitive operation has been the calling card of, you guessed it, the Bush Administration itself. While they don't actually practice that strategy, they have repeatedly used the term "sensitive" in the same regard. In fact, Dubya said it less than 24 hours before "sensitive" became the new "liberal."
They have said that gathering intelligence is a sensitive operation. They have said that we must be sensitive to the religious beliefs of the countries we invade. But Kerry says it and bam! Instant wussy! Just add socialism!
Maybe if this administration was more sensitive, we wouldn't have a return to major combat operations in Najaf. Maybe we wouldn't scraping the bottom of the National Reserve barrel with the "stop-loss" operation. Maybe Al Qaeda computer expert Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan would still be working for us in revealing terrorist cells around the world.
As it is in the dating world, being "sensitive" has it place as long as it gets you what you want in the end. But if you add sincerity and resolve to that sensitivity, you will go far. Mr. Cheney can spin it anyway he wants, but like Benny Van Buren used to say, first, you've gotta have heart.
