Kerry calls on Bush to settle questions on military record

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Democratic presidential front-runner John F. Kerry, who has turned his decorated Vietnam War service into a theme of his campaign, said yesterday that President Bush and the US military should settle questions -- raised recently by Kerry allies -- about whether Bush completed his military service requirement in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s. Before attending a campaign rally here that drew 2,000 people, on the eve of today's presidential primary in Arizona and six other states, the Massachusetts senator said that the matter of Bush's military service record was "a question that I think remains open." Kerry added that he lacked "the facts" to make a judgment about accusations that Bush ended his military commitment prematurely.

"It's not up to me to talk about them or to question them at this point," Kerry said of the accusations. "I don't even know what the facts are. But I think it's up to the president and the military to answer those questions." Kerry also said he was not sure if he would exploit Bush's military record as an issue in the fall general election if he were to become the Democratic nominee. "I don't know yet, I haven't made up my mind," Kerry told reporters on the tarmac of the Tucson airport.

Yet two prominent Democrats with ties to Kerry -- Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and former senator and Vietnam veteran Max Cleland -- have ratcheted up their attacks on Bush's military record, with McAuliffe saying on television Sunday that Bush had been "AWOL" at times during his guard service. Cleland, speaking at a veterans' rally with Kerry on Friday, said the nation should not have a president "who didn't even complete his tour stateside in the guard." Kerry said yesterday he did not ask allies to attack Bush on his military record.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/02/03/kerry_calls_on_bush_to_settle_questions_on_military_record/