Posted on 01/24/2004 12:31:13 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Did President Bush "desert" the military, as radical filmmaker Michael Moore insists he did? Presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark suggested during New Hampshire's presidential debate Thursday night that the facts of whether Bush ran out on his National Guard unit in 1972 and 1973 are in dispute. But in the months before the 2000 presidential election, the New York Times pretty much demolished this Democratic Party urban legend, a myth that first surfaced in its sister paper, the Boston Globe. "For a full year, there is no record that Bush showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen," the Globe insisted in May 2000, in a report Mr. Moore currently cites on his web site to rebut ABC newsman Peter Jennings' debate challenge to Clark that the story is "unsupported by the facts." "I don't know whether [Moore's desertion charge] is supported by the facts or not," Clark replied "I've never looked at it." The Times did, however, look at it, and found that Bush had indeed served during the part of the time the Globe had him AWOL - and later made up whatever time he missed after requesting permission for the postponement. In July 2000 the Times noted that Bush's chief accuser in the Globe report, retired Gen. William Turnipseed, had begun to back way from his story that Bush never appeared for service during the time in question. "In a recent interview," said the Times, "[Turnipseed] took a tiny step back, saying, 'I don't think he did, but I wouldn't stake my life on it." In fact, military records obtained by the Times showed that Turnipseed was wrong and that the Globe had flubbed the story. "A review by The Times showed that after a seven-month gap, he appeared for duty in late November 1972 at least through July 1973," the paper noted on Nov. 3, 2000. The Times explained: "On Sept. 5, 1972, Mr. Bush asked his Texas Air National Guard superiors for assignment to the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery [Alabama] 'for the months of September, October and November,'" so Bush could manage the Senate campaign of Republican Winton Blount. "Capt. Kenneth K. Lott, chief of the personnel branch of the 187th Tactical Recon Group, told the Texas commanders that training in September had already occurred but that more training was scheduled for Oct. 7 and 8 and Nov. 4 and 5." After the Bush AWOL story had percolated for months, Col. Turnipseed finally remembered another glitch in his story: the fact that National Guard regulations allowed Guard members to miss duty as long as it was made up within the same quarter. And, in fact - according to the Times - that's what Bush did. "A document in Mr. Bush's military records," the paper said, "showed credit for four days of duty ending Nov. 29 and for eight days ending Dec. 14, 1972, and, after he moved back to Houston, on dates in January, April and May." The paper found corroboration for the document, noting, "The May dates correlated with orders sent to Mr. Bush at his Houston apartment on April 23, 1973, in which Sgt. Billy B. Lamar told Mr. Bush to report for active duty on May 1-3 and May 8-10." Yet another document obtained by the Times blew the Bush AWOL story out of the water. It showed that Mr. Bush served at various times from May 29, 1973, through July 30, 1973 - "a period of time questioned by The Globe," the Times sheepishly admitted.
Posted by walkman to eagles
On News/Activism 01/24/2004 7:40:01 AM CST #10 of 19
Gridlock is what's best for the taxpayers. Let both parties fight. Do you think Tom Delay would've let Bill Clinton increase spending this much?
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Uhhhh, yeah, Troll, you're supporting Kerry. Certainly not Bush.
"The facts are in dispute" is another cowardly phrase that democrats love to use. All it takes is one looney out there to make an unsubstantiated negative assertion, or more cowardly still, say they saw it on the internet and "the facts are in dispute." Ninety-nine million people can understand a set of facts, but, if one crazy partisan denies them, then, "the facts are in dispute."
Call me crazy, but what that phrase means to me is that there is a genuine difference of opinion with substantial backing and evidence for each side of an issue.
It would be slanderous to say that it was Wesley Clark and not Michael Jackson who molested a young boy. I know that this statement is patently false. But, someone cruising the internet could take the phrase (marked in bold) and write in to his local paper. "Hey, it says on the internet that it was Wesley Clark and not Michael Jackson who molested a young boy.
Then, George Bush could tell Tim Russert that, although he doesn't really know what happened in the case of the molested boy, the facts are in dispute. One group says that the perpetrator is Michael Jackson. Another says it's Wesley Clark. A third says the boy was molested by someone else. A fourth says he wasn't molested at all.
This type of attack is what passes, in the democrat party, as honest discourse. That spinning sound is not merely caused by the democrats' massaging the truth. It is also caused by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, spinning in their graves.
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061703.shtml
Actually, we *should* let gays in the military, just so that issue can resolved once and for all. Here's how it would work...
Openly homosexual men are allowed to joined the military. One of them does what homosexuals always do - he hits on a straight man. The straight man rebuffs his advances. (The myth that gays are only attracted to other gays can be debunked by *any* straight man who has ever had the displeasure of getting hit on by a gay man. It happens all the time.)
Now there is an uncomfortable feeling between the straight man and the homosexual man. Per usual, the two men still share the same shower facility. After the gay man looks at the straight man's arse for the last time, the straight man finally brings up a sexual harassment complaint.
The army has its hands tied. They realize that the straight soldier's complaint is valid and - if not addressed properly - would open the door for male soldiers to peep in female showers without repercussions. Not surprisingly, this type of complaint comes up hundreds, if not thousands, of times. The army realizes that something must be done.
Under pressure to continue to allow gay men to serve, the army begins providing gay soldiers with separate shower facilities - just like they do for women. But - LO - just as you would expect, tension begins to arise between GAY soldiers and one GAY soldier brings a sexual harassment complaint against another one. The army realizes that combat situations do not permit exclusive privacy. They also realize that homosexuals are incompatible with that type of environment. They finally give up on their failed experiment and go back to the way it should be.
We hope... but probably not. It's tougher to take away rights than it is to grant them, so we'd probably just be stuck with a circus sideshow within the army's ranks.
Sigh...
Right you may be, but that dog won't hunt. The American public elected a bald-faced draft dodger over two combat veterans. There's no way Kerry will have any Vietnam liability in the eyes of the public.
I saw the Peter Jennings' exchange with Wesley Clark, and I must say that I was perplexed. Jennings, a liberal who has bashed Bush in the past, is now defending Bush??? Props to Jennings.
I read somewhere yesterday that a person who received three Purple Hearts could request an "early out".
The same article also mentioned that none of Kerry's wounds were more than minor and none kept him out of duty for more than a day.
There's no way Kerry will have any Vietnam liability in the eyes of the public.
You may be right. But I'm of a different opinion. I think Kerry does have Vietnam liability and he has it on several fronts. From the anti-war crowd for having gone in the first place and for gasp! having won medals. From veterans for tossing his medals &, thereby blighting their service & sacrifice. From people who are sick of hearing about Vietnam in any context. From people who aren't sick of hearing about Viet Nam but who are sick of hearing Kerry talk about Viet Nam... IMO, Vietnam is an issue that a lot of people of all different political stripes are just plain sick & tired of hearing about and that, rightly or wrongly, it's a stone around Kerry's neck from a lot of perspectives.
Not everybody in the Army gets the opportunity to be an Infantryman.
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Beyond that, drill rescheds are the norm in the air reserves, not the exception.
I find that interesting as well. I was in the military 1965-72 including 12 months in-country and 8 months offshore and had my four year obligation extended to five years when I requested to leave. I had a regular commission. How Kerry got his early discharge is something that should be looked at.
Re Bush and being a desserter: A caller to CPAN put it best. How did Bush receive an honorable discharge if that is true?
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