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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1. I'm 29, so, I obviously didn't grow up during the Vietnam era, and can no way relate to it's imporntance to those that grew up in those times.
2. I hate hate hate George W. Bush :)
3. I haven't read through all the post here.
With that being said, I can understand using your connections to get into the National Guard (this is pretty much undisputed...the waiting list for the Guard was very long, and Bush scored the lowest you could score to gain admission to his particular unit). If I was in his shoes during those times, I would have done the same thing.
For me personally, I think the reason it matters is because we have a president who will not come clean on his record in the Guard sending people off to Iraq. His entire administration is filled with folks that were begging for war that had an opportunity to serve during Vietnam, but chose not to. I think someone who's been in combat would be a bit more cautious before committing troops to war.
I don't know how important the military records of Bush or Kerry will play out during this election year. I think Bush has a lot more to worry about besides his military record and a constitutional ban on gay marriage, but, then again, I really can't stand this man :)
Chris
“I'm almost nervous about the affect it will have on me. I consider myself a Christian, but I feel sure that this will really point out how I have not been living as one.”
C
I agree for everyday people, but when you are talking about a politician you are not talking about "everyday people" (and why that is sad is a completely different debate).
James
janderson_ny@yahoo.com
CL Ask A Guy
It is too bad that there are people who purport to be something they're not. There was a huge scandal several years ago at one of the military academies when it was discovered that the commanding officer was wearing medals and service ribbons he hadn't earned. As I recall, he killed himself when the news broke.
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
ITA I just couldn't believe what the Rep did. It was really dirty--just as Willy Horton was a low blow to Dukakis. The Reps wrote the book on dirty tricks with Nixon. And their still getting away with it. Where's the media when you need them--the facts are available why aren't they exposing the lies?
And Bush parading around on an air-craft carrier is not show boating?
I know I’m getting off topic here but. Since you’re so oblivious to how truly inadequate this president has been, I’d like to hear your opinion on his using 9/11 footage on his reelection ads.
I for one am appalled, how can that man use this tragedy to keep his job, which by the way he hasn’t been any good at. I can’t wait until he is booted out of the white house somewhere he shouldn’t have been anyway. But that’s not the point. The point is that he is not at all thinking of what seeing these images will do to the families who’ve lost people not only on that tragic day but also in the “war on terrorism”. Which brings me to wasn’t osama the one who attacked us? So why were we so hell bent on sadam but not so much on osama? Read in to the past of the bush family. You’ll find that bush SR. and Sadam were actually friendly with one another. THIS WAR WAS A PERSONAL FAMILY VENDETTA. All I can hope is that this year the person who gets the most vote is the one who actually gets to go to the white house, and I certainly hope that it is not George W. Bush.
Concerned American Citizen.
Hi Allie! We're discussing the Bush ads
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