Bush and Military Service
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| Tue, 02-10-2004 - 12:53pm |
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page A23
During the Vietnam War, I was what filmmaker Michael Moore would call a "deserter." Along with President Bush and countless other young men, I joined the National Guard, did my six months of active duty (basic training, etc.) and then returned to my home unit, where I eventually dropped from sight. In the end, just like President Bush, I got an honorable discharge. But unlike President Bush, I have just told the truth about my service. He hasn't.
At least I don't think so. Nothing about Bush during that period -- not his drinking, not his partying -- suggests that he was a consistently conscientious member of the Texas or Alabama Air National Guard. As it happens, there are no records to show that Bush reported for duty during the summer and fall of 1972. Nonetheless, Bush insists he was where he was supposed to be -- "Otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged," Bush told Tim Russert. Please, sir, don't make me laugh.
It is sort of amazing that every four or eight years, Vietnam -- that long-ago war -- rears up from seemingly nowhere and comes to figure in the national political debate. In 1988 Dan Quayle had to answer for his National Guard service. In 1992 Bill Clinton had to grapple with the question of how he avoided the Vietnam-era draft. Now George Bush, who faced this question the last time out, has to face it again. The reason is that this time he is likely to compete against a genuine war hero. John Kerry did not duck the war.
But George Bush did. He did so by joining the National Guard. Bush now wants to drape the Vietnam-era Guard with the bloodied flag of today's Iraq-serving Guard -- "I wouldn't denigrate service to the Guard," Bush warned during his interview with Russert -- but the fact remained that back then the Guard was where you went if you did not want to fight. That was the case with me. I opposed the war in Vietnam and had no desire to fight it. Bush, on the other hand, says he supported the war -- as long, it seems, as someone else fought it.
It hardly matters what Bush did or did not do back in 1972. He is not the man now he was then -- that by his own admission. In the same way, it did not matter that Clinton ducked the draft, because, really, just about everyone I knew at the time was doing something similar. All that really matters is how one accounts for what one did. Do you tell the truth (which Clinton did not)? Or do you do what I think Bush has been doing, which is making his National Guard service into something it was not? In his case, it was a rich kid's way around the draft.
In my case, it was something similar -- although (darn!) I was not rich. I was, though, lucky enough to get into a National Guard unit in the nick of time, about a day before I was drafted. I did my basic and advanced training (combat engineer) and returned to my unit. I was supposed to attend weekly drills and summer camp, but I found them inconvenient. I "moved" to California and then "moved" back to New York, establishing a confusing paper trail that led, really, nowhere. For two years or so, I played a perfectly legal form of hooky. To show you what a mess the Guard was at the time, I even got paid for all the meetings I missed.
In the end, I wound up in the Army Reserve. I was assigned to units for which I had no training -- tank repairman, for instance. In some units, we sat around with nothing to do and in one we took turns delivering antiwar lectures. The National Guard and the Reserves were something of a joke. Everyone knew it. Books have been written about it. Maybe things changed dramatically by 1972, two years after I got my discharge, but I kind of doubt it.
I have no shame about my service, but I know it for what it was -- hardly the Charge of the Light Brigade. When Bush attempts to drape the flag of today's Guard over the one he was in so long ago, when he warns his critics to remember that "there are a lot of really fine people who have served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq," then he is doing now what he was doing then: hiding behind the ones who were really doing the fighting. It's about time he grew up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27178-2004Feb9.html

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Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) lost his reelection by a hair after GOP ads that superimposed his face over Osama bin Laden's.
Max Cleland is a quadriplegic - his limbs were blown off defending our country in Vietnam. Attacking that man's integrity, on national security especially, is nothing short of morally repugnant.
And btw - this whole Federal Marriage Amendment nonsense is nothing short of using people's bigotry to distract the voting public from what a gargantuan failure Shrub is as a president.
We're in an Iraq quagmire. The record surplus has turned into a record deficit. The financial recovery has been jobless. Shrub's biggest campaign contributor was Kenneth Lay of Enron.
The reason folks are so interested in Shrub's military record (or lack thereof) is because he himself has made his supposed integrity a campaigning point. Poking the obvious holes in that fraudulent enterprise is as simple as pointing out the truth.
>"distract the voting public from what a gargantuan failure"<
ITA
I am from Georgia and was "represented" by Max Cleland for quite some time. He DID NOT have his limbs blown off defending our country in Vietnam. He was playing with a grenade.
The people of my state were fed up with the way the Dems were running it. Thus he lost to Saxby Chambliss (R) (who is championing the enlightenment of Kerry's poor military voting record right now). We also have Zell Miller (D) who has a current best seller about how his own party has failed the people of America. Sonny Perdue is our first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. Max Clelend cannot hide behind his "military hero" image anymore...(but Kerry will sure give it a run!)
The Marriage issue is one the president cannot change himself, but felt it was important to tell his opinion on the matter. Not surprised at his response, it's right in line with his values and beliefs. It won't change because of public opinion.
Record surplus was only on paper and it was the result of years of overtaxation of the American people by the Clinton administration.
Jobless financial recovery??? This from the Heritage Foundation in and article titled: INCREASED INVESTMENT PUSHES JANUARY JOB GROWTH by William W. Beach, Alison Fraser, Rea S. Hederman, Jr., and Tim Kane...
***total # of U.S. workers is at all time high of 138.6 million
***Unemployment rate of 5.6% represents a healthy economy, down significantly from 6.3% last June
***Payroll jobs have increased by 112,000 over the last month- the biggest gain since Dec. 2000
***Employment increased by 496,000 workers in Jan. according to the Household Survey
The Bush campaign has provided all of Bush's military records proving he was not AWOL at any time.
~W IN04~
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First of all, he wasn't "playing" with a grenade. And second, what the hell do you think he was doing in Vietnam if not serving our country? Really. You should take your ugly show on the road, drive to Walter Reed and find some guys just back from Iraq who've lost arms & legs when their trucks rolled over and inform them that they weren't injured while defending our country. Give it a try, and let me know how your logic goes over with them.
The other amazing part is that this was your rebuttal to a charge that Republicans resort to dirty tricks and smear campaigns. I think you've just proved i_freshsushi's point beautifully.
Cleland Responds to Coulter Attack
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=42979
Would be a lot more respectable and stoic to NOT mention your service and let your actions and service as a Government representative stand for itself.
Bush should just own up to it-- he used his father's influence to get out of going to Vietnam. Lots of people did it(notably, John Kerry did not.) He transferred to Alabama and then was too busy with political matters to put in his time. This would make the issue go away and he would look much less hypocritical then he does now. Then we could get to the issues that matter, like how he is running this country into the ground and sending our young men (those without daddies to get them out of it) to die for his own selfish motives. And, of course, to get back at Hussein and maybe make some money for his buddies at Hallibutron.
This is typical of how most vets act. My hubby doesn't brag about his stint in the Navy. Neither do my two Marine bil's. My friends and family in the military downplay their self-less acts. Never once do you hear them bring it up voluntarily. It is those who have something to prove (because of something lacking--like integrity) that always love to boast about their military record. The majority of those who brag about being in the military (like the Seals) are imposters. There's even a website about these bozos.
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