Posted on 01/31/2004 7:07:00 AM PST by billorites
George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not logged enough flight hours" to qualify for a combat assignment. Before going on to recall the "challenging moments" that involved close formation drills at night during poor weather, he adds: "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years."
In light of what journalists and other researchers have learned since the publication of Mr. Bush’s book, his account is unmistakably fraudulent.
The issue is again relevant because Michael Moore, the author and filmmaker who supports Wesley Clark’s Presidential campaign, recently impugned the President as a "deserter." During the final Democratic Presidential debate in New Hampshire, moderator Peter Jennings called Mr. Moore’s statement "a reckless charge not supported by the facts," and demanded that General Clark repudiate his celebrity backer.
As the ABC newsman may (or, more likely, may not) know, the facts about the President’s National Guard stint are complex, disputed and, in many respects, unflattering. To call him a "deserter" was wrong and inflammatory, even if Mr. Moore was joking, as he now insists. Although Mr. Bush may well have been absent without leave, he was never prosecuted for that offense, let alone desertion, and he eventually received an honorable discharge. But to suggest that the Bush record is beyond criticism, as Mr. Jennings did, is both misleading and biased. That bias reflects an enduring double standard on this topic that has protected Mr. Bush ever since he first declared his Presidential candidacy.
The facts, established by Boston Globe reporter Walter Robinson in 2000, explode the lyrical flights of fancy penned by Ms. Hughes.
George W. Bush graduated from Yale in June 1968. After his father’s influential friends contacted Texas Air National Guard officials, they awarded young George a safe berth in Houston’s famed "champagne unit," where sons of the Texas elite avoided Vietnam. His very special treatment included instant admission to flight training and an extraordinary commission as a second lieutenant. According to his former superiors, Mr. Bush performed admirably as a pilot while patrolling the coastal waters of the United States.
But in May 1972, only 22 months after he completed pilot training, he stopped flying. In August 1972, he failed to show up for his annual physical examination and was automatically grounded. According to The Times of London, a conservative newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, Mr. Bush’s campaign spokesman said he knew that he would be suspended if he missed that physical.
He never flew a military aircraft again (or not until his flight-suit photo op last spring, when he briefly took the controls of an S-3B Viking jet before landing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln). Instead, he left his Guard unit in Houston and went to Alabama to work in a Republican Senate campaign. He claims to have continued to serve in an Alabama Guard unit, but there is no evidence to support that assertion, and much contradictory evidence. The commanding officer of the Alabama Guard Unit told the Boston Globe that Mr. Bush never showed up for duty there. Nor is there any evidence that he sought duty in Vietnam.
In fact, there is considerable evidence that Mr. Bush skipped all duty for a full year, until April 1973. At that point, his two superior officers in Houston noted in writing in an official document: "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report." They erroneously believed that he had been completing his duty in Alabama. Yet he somehow received an honorable discharge eight months before he completed his six-year commitment so that he could begin attending Harvard Business School.
As the Globe noted, the "champagne unit" and others like it back then displayed "a tendency to excuse shirking by those with political connections."
So Mr. Bush’s claim that he "continued flying with my unit for the next several years" is an unabashed falsehood. Yet the spotty coverage of his military record in the mainstream press—aside from the Globe investigation and similar efforts in the Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Times—elided that lie. Compare his soft treatment with the media scourging of Bill Clinton, who was held accountable during the 1992 campaign for every word he uttered about his draft record.
What the Jennings episode validates is not Mr. Bush’s strange military career, but the Bush method of press management. Treat journalists like vassals, with nicknames, cheek-pinching and—whenever they forget their place momentarily—sneering disdain. It works brilliantly.
You may reach Joe Conason via email at: jconason@observer.com.
Exactly. Obviously, Kerry knew the rules and three wounds were his ticket out. I will say the politically incorrect by questioning whether any of these "wounds" were self-inflicted. I would also like to see the citations for his Silver Star and Bronze Star and learn who initiated the paperwork. Kerry is a shameless self-promoter who, in my opinion, saw Vietnam as a way of getting his ticket punched to further his political ambitions. When he returned from Vietnam, he expressed his shame about his military service because it was politically expedient. Now he holds his service up as a badge of honor taking every opportunity to remind everyone that he served. Kerry wants it both ways and always has.
Bush has nothing to be ashamed of. He could have been called to duty in Vietnam at any time. As far as I am concerned he did his duty. And as others have pointed out his duty, fighter jets, wasn't all that easy or safe.
5.56mm
"Is there a credible, impartial, source for the entire story on the President's service record? We have all read these stories many times but, to date, I haven't seen anything satisfactory that clears up a troublesome record."You might wish to take a look at this complete thread, a Free Republic Thread on Bush(43) Service Record which will answer not only the charges that he got into the Texas Air National Guard by pulling strings with an extremely low test score, and that he was "AWOL" from duty. The information on the thread even has photocopies of the Bush(43) service records, dates, times etc so that you can form your OWN opinion by reading the liberal 'charges' and dates, and then matching them up with his government service record. Why not trust you OWN eyes rather than having to find a 'story' which might support Bush(43)? Best of luck, dvwjr
Too funny. Cool bit of trivia. Thanks.
- they're both hung-up about GWB's military service record!
I'm against it, how about you?
From: www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=9684
#27 Ms. Andi 1/23/2004 10:21AM PST #21 Necklace of shoes Unbelievable isn't it. I thought I was on a Kucinich thread. The fact they sited Alex Jones/infowars.com (Austin's favorite loon) as a legitimate source had me in stiches. ... #27, #33 Alex Jones is still at it? I thought he'd be in an asylum by now. For those of you not familiar, Mr. Jones had/has a cable access show wherein he would routinely play "Star Wars" films behind him on the blue screen while he ranted on and on about the "evil empire" at home. This was during Clinton's reign and I can't imagine it's gotten any better. Austin was too damn hot, the UT a bureaucratic nightmare, the vaunted "music scene" just empty warehouses full of garage bands, the vaunted "coffee house" scene just a bunch of old gas stations selling cheap java and the townsfolk a curious mixture of yuppie scum and hippie freakdom when I lived there. [OT--Do the Zendiks nutflakes still have a tv show, too? Picture Mr. and Mrs. Charles Manson and the Rev. Jim Jones orchestra with a half-hour slot, folks. Charming.] It may have a few nice restaurants and a mild winter, but otherwise to hell with it. Charles Whitman had a vision. At least the drugs were cheap but I guess that's because of the short trip to Mexico. Avoid.
Reality, it seems, is of no concern to these people when one has an agenda to promote against the New World Order and other suitable bogey men that appear to be the 'root' of all evil.
www.thepowerhour.com/news_frame.htm
In particular, they have a link to a piece titled:
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