Reply #7: So, he dodged the draft...

[mhollis]

The website you mention needs to be updated to include the payroll records received under the FOI request this last Friday, 23 July, 2004 after 5:00 PM (when Administrations typically "throw out the trash" or dump stuff that looks bad in hopes that the press won't look too seriously at it.

But I have to sympathize with Bush here...

He couldn't really dodge the draft, he had to so something because he just wasn't that good in school to stay out of the military and Congress killed student deferrments anyway (the need for cannon fodder was high). So he didn't do what Cheny or Clinton did and he was being groomed to run for something political, so he did what his Daddy told him to do, join the Guard and "serve his country."

I would have tried any dodge available. My draft number was 16 -- I was going in. Happily, under threat of a military draft being declared unconstitutional on the basis that it was involuntary servitude, Congress and the President abolished it, the year before I was eligible to be drafted.

That places almost all of the Baby Boomers in an uncomfortable position -- they have to be honest and forthcoming about what they did during Vietnam. And since draft evasion may limit one's access to the Vietnam Vets' votes, as it "dishonors" their sacrifice for their country, it makes that line item on one's resume into a "missing re-entry tile" for any would-be politician.

So he has my sympathy on that score.

He has none of my sympathy for involving us in another Vietnam, as he dishonors the Vietnam Veterans as well as the present military by lying to the American people in order to make war on a nation that was no threat to the United States. The most he could have proven was that Saddam Hussein was a potential threat to some not-very-valuable US interests and he was a point of instability in an all ready unstable region which supplies the US with most of its oil. That is too much of a stretch for me to want to occupy a foreign country as an agressor nation.

Also, his pre-emptiveness doctrine essentially justified Hitler's attack on Poland, Russia and Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. I still think those attacks were not justified, despite how he dishonors WW II Veterans in his present doctrine.

The Bush response to all of this is to use their surrogates to attack Kerry on whether or not he should have been awarded The Order Of The Purple Heart or two Silver Stars. Then, after suggesting that Kerry didn't really deserve the awards, they point to how Kerry may have dishonored all Veterans by being against the Vietnam War and by throwing his ribbons, medals or whatever away.

If Bush were so "gung-ho" about the Vietnam war, why didn't he volunteer his flying skills to the Navy or Air Force and help prosecute it? Simple, Bush was against going and putting his body on the line for his country. But he wants to have it both ways so that he can be a politican, so he turns questions like that on the questioner, suggesting that the questioner wishes to dishonor the service of the National Guard.

Back in the 1970s the Air National Guard was a "flying club." Young men with good eyesight, college educations and connections could join. Bush had all three. Nobody was drafting the National Guard to go overseas to help out with an unpopular war. And, frankly, I don't think they could have done that job. In the same sense that Bush put his life on the line in joining and flying with the National Guard, Prince Charles put his life on the line by joining Her Majesty's Royal Navy. There was always the possibility that he could have gotten hurt but the liklihood was very low, especially as compared to other dangerous places one could be while in the military.

Bush went AWOL because he was a screw-up. He also used cocaine and used to drink to excess and drove while intoxicated. He may have gotten his life back in order and he may be a good law-abiding citizen now. He is a bad President. He needs to be turned out of office.

Asking questions about his 1972 service is a side-issue.