Saving Lieutenant Bush
09/08/04
As a veteran of the Vietnam War era, I understand that the focus on military service in the presidential campaign is maddening. It brings up all sorts of feelings and emotions. It was perfectly natural that Senator Kerry would bring up his military service as a way to explain who he is. He could have avoided service but did not. He could have found a less exposed military situation but did not. His heroism has now been proven by military documentation and the Swift Boat Liars have been shown for what they are, liars. One note of criticism for John Kerry here: he should have known this would happen and should have been prepared to do more to debunk these people.
OK – Now let’s deal with Lt. Bush. The press has a lot to answer for not following up on this story. It should have been fully developed in 1999 or 2000. In fact, the general press has done very little on this. Why?
Most reporters don’t have a clue about military procedures or rules. The press has accepted on face value the lame excuses that Bush and his minions have given to try to explain away this situation. This is not the first time people have tried to cover for the actions or lack of actions by Lt. Bush. So my message to the press is: “Stop enabling this liar.” You should question every statement and consult with authorities on this issue, not take the word of some press secretary or campaign spokesperson.
The press has a duty to hold people accountable. The nation asks one simple thing of all its military personnel – show up. It is clear from the evidence that Lt. Bush time and again did not show. He did not perform his duty. It does not matter how meaningless that duty was. As my dad told me before I went to basic training at Ft. Knox, “Son, It does not matter who you are, how much money you have, or who you know. The military is the great social equalizer. You are all the same in there.” Lt. Bush has broken that code. He used everything and everybody to escape his most basic responsibility to show up.
One of the worst aspects in this terrible story is that people are still trying to make excuses for him. The Boston Globe story states: “Even retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd Jr., a former Texas Air National Guard personnel chief who vouched for Bush at the White House's request in February, agreed that Bush walked away from his obligation to join a reserve unit in the Boston area when he moved to Cambridge in September 1973. By not joining a unit in Massachusetts, Lloyd said in an interview last month, Bush ‘took a chance that he could be called up for active duty. But the war was winding down, and he probably knew that the Air Force was not enforcing the penalty.’”
But Lloyd said that singling out Bush for criticism is unfair. ''There were hundreds of guys like him who did the same thing," he said.
My response to Lloyd is the following: I was released from active duty in September of 1972 after both my parents died. I did what was asked of me and signed up with an appropriate reserve unit and served my remaining commitment. I am just your average citizen. So what makes George W. Bush special that he does not have to complete his military service?
STOP making excuses for Bush. STOP enabling this man.
It is clear to me what is needed. We need to convene a military court of inquiry. Determine if Lt. Bush did qualify for an honorable discharge or not. If not, then he should be stripped of his honorable discharge.
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Remember when the Republicans could never pass up a chance to refer to President Clinton as a "draftdodger" always in a the most nasty way...now it appears that if a Republican avoids the draft, gets deferments or even goes AWOL.....it is heroic, American, Patriotic, a down right honorable thing to do...IF you are a Republican..what hypocrits..of the worse kind....cowardly hypocrits
As a nurse who served in the USAF Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War, I don't believe a lowly pilot with the rank of lt. would be able to decide when and if to take a physical.
I think Joy's right. My husband's a fighter pilot, now retired from the USAF. No pilot chooses whether or not to take the flight physical. Bush either was caught doing cocaine or he got Poppy Bush to 'disappear' the records of the board of inquiry that had to be held by regulation.
The convservative virtues: lying, cheating and stealing. One is lead to the conclusion that when faced with taking the word of a madman and defending America, America should be defended every time. The madman should be voted out.
Speaking as someone who knows quite a few fighter jocks & who's had Uncle Sugar as his employer for well over 25 years in one iteration or another, I can say for a Dead Certainty that the Absolute Worst Thing you can do to a pilot is tell him/her/it that they can't fly. Every pilot I know (quite a few) would do ANYthing to make sure they got a green light on their flight physical. And Guard or not, 'Nam or not, no punk-kid ell-tee EVER gets away with being a no-show, period. Well, that is, if he's just a regular Joe Schmuck, at any rate. Somebody who rates a mega-powerful guardian angel or two might....
Where's the outrage over the story in the NY Times editorial for Sept. 3, about members of the military who will be voting by fax and email AND DENIED THE RIGHT TO A SECRET BALLOT, all of this stage- managed by a private company called Omega Technologies, whose CEO has given money to the RNC? Title of editorial is "Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot." The Times calls on the Pentagon to drop these plans, but no one else seems interested in what this story means!
After reading what Dubya did, it really pisses off the easter bunny with me!!! It raises very big credibility issues with this guy. Of course, what he has done these last four years, he has no credibility. But this issue hit home!
I personally know what it means to break your contract with the government in regards to military duty. I broke my contract with the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1970 because of work conflicts. I was sent on involuntary active duty for training (more like active duty for punishment). I did not get any preferential treatment or consideration! Of course, my name wasn't George W. Bush!
I am a Viet Nam vet and one thing I can assure you, I remember where I was stationed and what I did for the entire length of my service. And my buddies and I probably got just as screwed up on off hours as LT Bush. I also didn't walk away from the job I was trained for at a cost to the American taxpayer.
The Bush character certainly gets enabled all along the way. It's incredible!! He wants to send everyone esle to die/get limbs blown off/brains scrambled, but he didn't want to risk it himself when he had a chance for the dubious/horrific privilege.!!!! UNREAL!
Kerry should emphasize that it does NOT take a hero to order 300 thousand troops into combat. it takes a hero to BE one of those 300 thousand to go into combat. ...and not skip out and miss your medical exam so you wont have to be bothered anymore.
if Bush/Cheney are looking for loop holes to send more National Guardsmen into Iraq without a draft, maybe they should look through older files to see if any guardsmen havnt completed their commitment.
...wouldnt that be justice.
bu$h claims he is proud of his service in the Guard. Would YOU be proud of a record which included being suspended from flying for disobeying a direct order to take a physical? Apparently George bu$h has an extremely low threshold of pride. This is also reflected in his crowing that the largest deficit in U.S. history came in under estimates. It's still a record deficit George!
He's not the President. The Electoral College is unconstitutional. The Electoral College is a pillar of slavery; it is a mechanism of slavery. In order to create the Virginia Dynasty of slaveholding Presidents from the largest (and most populous state) in the Union, the delegations (not delegates) voted for a subsidy in the Constitution (economic and political) for the benefit of slavery. All delegations at the Convention were equal but not all delegates. Therefore, the political basis of the Convention at Philadelphia violated the Declaration of Independence. But the most important contradiction involved the political power arising from the total population which included those who could vote--such as slaves who could not vote as a matter of law because they were deemed to have no will of their own. Read Garry Wills on The Negro President.
The Electoral College was based upon "virtual representation," a concept which which James Otis had identifed as specious and unconstitutional. The Electoral College was part of the subsidy to slavery that gave the votes of the slave (albeit discounted to 60%) to the slave master. George Washington (with 100 slaves) cast 61 votes for the President; John Adams with no slaves cast but one. In order to enslave the African, it was necessary to enslave the white man as well. Those who cannot vote for their magistrates cannot call them into account.
According to Solon and Thomas Paine such people are no more than slaves. We are all slaves today as a result of the Electoral College.
The New York Times agrees with me. "Abolish the Electoral College." (8/29/04). We cannot export democracy if we do not have it at home. The NeoCons are not "democrats." They are not "republicans" either. The Republicans in 1856 adopted the Declaration of Independence which said that all men were created equal. The resurrection of the Declaration of 1776 (the new birth of freedom declared by Lincoln) led to the 14th Amendment.
When the Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment applied to Article II (the mode of electing the President) in Bush v. Gore, it knew that it was issuing a legal contradiction. If all votes are equal, Al Gore is the President because he got more of them. The Electoral College is nothing but a false idol worshipped by the idolatrous pagans. It is rooted in the Roman Catholic religion and the aristocracy of the Holy Roman Empire. It is not a device which can be explained by reason or natural law. It is not republican and not democratic in nature. It originates from arisocracy and paganism and leads only to tyrrany and despotism.
gmcoutin2000@yahoo.com
Back in 1972, there were so many cases of drug abuse, and AWOL that Bush may have simply been offered an Other Than Honorable or even an Honorable Discharge just to be rid of him with as little friction as possible. I remember a pilot who tested positive for marijuana back in 1980 and he was simply asked to resign his commission and nothing more would be done. Officers were more likely to receive this treatment as the military has always exalted the officers and tried to make them seem infallible. One other possibility is that he received an Other Than Honorable or even a BCD and had it upgraded after the required time frame.
Bush is a chicken fighter. Who in their right mind would have wanted him to fight for our country. Mama and Daddy knew that, why do you suppose Daddy got him deferred?
If Bush fulfilled his Guard obligation because he got an honorable discharge, then O.J. Simpson could not have killed his wife because he was not convicted of murder.
How can a thoughtful, reasonable individual feel comfortable with our current President and others in his administration ordering anyone into battle. He avoided service in another important war at the time as a young man, seeking refuge in the National Guard when his country needed men to serve in South East Asia. He then could not bring himself to take his service seriously and be an asset to the home national defense. Most of us who served did not intellectualize the war in Vietnam. We served because our Father's served in WW2 or Korea. Apparently a lot of people think Vietnam, Iraq and coming wars are just and correct. That has nothing to do with service to our country. The soldier must rely on the citizens and the government to make sure that they do not sacrifice in vain. Mr. Bush falls way short of the mark.
