Posted on 09/03/2004 7:15:01 AM PDT by Bob Hyneman
Cheney’s “five deferments.”
[b][color=orange]In the summer of 1967 D ick Cheney was a married 26 year old man with a daughter.[/color] [/b] Twenty-six year old men cannot be drafted but (gasp) he was married and had a daughter BEFORE he turned 26 and that means he had two deferments!!!
[b](Everyone who had a daughter in 1966 was draft dodger right?).[/b]
Anyway, a half-truth is as good as a truth to John Kerry, so all you need to know is the two deferments part right?
Except, that many many years before the draft, D ick Cheney had also - attended Community College - and then University. Since any slick lawyer-type can tell you transferring schools can legally be counted as two deferments, that brings the total to four. (Never mind that he acquired both of these [b][u]years[/u][/b] before Vietnam was a war, or had draft, or could even be found on the amp by most Americans).
So what is number 5? Well in 1965 the US sent its first contingent of 3,500 Marines to Vietnam. (The draft would begin in earnest in 1966-67), Only a few years earlier in 1964-65, that damn D ick Cheney began applying for graduate schools and grad school acceptance counts as another. (This time Mr. Kerry DID successfully count to five).
So, if you believe John Kerry’s version of events, D ick Cheney began dodging the Vietnam draft five (or six) years before troops were being drafted and sent there. (Look this is politics and ad hominem attacks are allowed but if that is the best you got then you ain't got ad hominems)
[b]The fact is that D ick Cheney: - was accepted to community college - was accepted to the U of Wyoming - was accepted to graduate school - was married - was an expectant father all MORE THAN A YEAR before the draft began.[/b]
I note here that Cheney was married and an expectant father both during grad school and after Kerry COULD count that as SEVEN deferments, (but that would imply the ability to count to seven).
I suppose a 26 year-old daddy with a graduate degree and a newborn daughter COULD have volunteered to go to Vietnam, but I don’t think it is altogether honest to portray him as a draft dodger, do you?
FReegards...MUD
Bravo Sierra. 2/3 of those who served in Viet Nam were volunteers. 2/3 of those who served in WWII were draftees.
Conscription was established (1863) in the U.S. Civil War, but proved unpopular (see draft riots). The law authorized release from service to anyone who furnished a substitute and, at first, to those who paid $300. General conscription was reintroduced in World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917. All men from 21 to 30 years of age (later extended 18 to 45), inclusive, had to register. Exemptions from service were granted to men who had dependent families, indispensable duties at home, or physical disabilities. Conscientious objector status was granted to members of pacifist religious organizations, but they had to perform alternative service. Other war objectors were imprisoned, where several died. By the end of World War I about 2,800,000 men had been inducted.
The United States first adopted peacetime conscription with the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The act provided that not more than 900,000 men were to be in training at any one time, and it limited service to 12 months—later (1941) extended to 18 months. After the United States entered World War II, a new selective service act made men between 18 and 45 liable for military service and required all men between 18 and 65 to register. The terminal point of service was extended to six months after the war. From 1940 until 1947—when the wartime selective service act expired after extensions by Congress—over 10,000,000 men were inducted. A new selective service act was passed in 1948 that required all men between 18 and 26 to register and that made men from 19 to 26 liable for induction for 21 months' service, which would be followed by 5 years of reserve duty.
When the Korean War broke out, the 1948 law was replaced (1951) by the Universal Military Training and Service Act. The length of service was extended to 24 months, and the minimum age for induction was reduced to 18 1/2 years. The main purpose of the Reserve Forces Act of 1955 was to strengthen the reserve forces and the National Guard. It required six years of duty, including both reserve and active duty. The Military Selective Service Act of 1967 required all men between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for service. The regular exemptions along with educational deferments were granted. These loopholes and other technicalities tended to discriminate against working-class and poor men, and thus a higher percentage from these groups were drafted.
Due to this perceived discrimination by class and also because of the great unpopularity of the Vietnam War, conscription became a major social issue. There were numerous demonstrations at draft boards and induction centers. Many young men evaded the draft through technicalities or fraud; thousands fled the country or went to prison. In 1973 conscription was abolished in favor of an all-volunteer army. President Gerald R. Ford later granted clemency to many draft resisters. In 1980, Congress reinstituted draft registration for men 18 to 25 years old. If there were to be a crisis, registered men would be inducted as determined by age and a random lottery.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
You and I agree here - Clinton is / was / always will be scum.
Clinton's dodging the draft is NOT honourable and was not legal at the time - President Ford had to pardon the Draft Dodgers so that they could return to the United States without fear of imprisonment.
Cheney, IF his deferements (and the is a question as to whether there were any at all) were taken in a calculated attempt to never be inducted also acted dishonourably! I have yet to see any commentary regarding this from Cheney so I am still withholding judgement. A clarification of what deferments actually WERE used would also be in order! As Kerry's "5 Deferments" charge has already been partially debunked.
**Yes. All real Americans love Halliburton! In fact, owning its stock should be a requirement for voting!**
Bill Clinton obviously did as there were many contracts granted to them without even bids during his time of President
...and remember the outroar from Kerry, Leahy, and all the rest of the Dem'Rats when Clinton awarded those no-bid contracts, or hosted Ken Lay at the White House numerous times to discuss Enron matters? Oh, that's right, the Dems didn't care, as long as it was a fellow 'Rat in power! They're all hypocrite scum! Where are the other Zell Millers?
didn't Kerry also get student deferments while he was an undergrad?
So, let's have a reality check:
Dick Cheney got 5 deferments, 4 for being a student and 1 for having a child.
John Kerry had 4 deferments, for being a student, and his fifth one, for study in France, was denied, so he joined the Naval Reserve picking a service that he KNEW wasn't near the action.
What is the difference?
No, he never received a draft notice.
Then the deferment issue is 100% straw man.
It sounds good, doesn't it? I was shocked to learn today that EACH YEAR counted as one deferment! I guess my husband got four!
Of the 26.8 million men who were eligible for the draft between 1964 and 1973, only 2.2 million were drafted while 8.7 million joined voluntarily, according to "Chance and Circumstance: the Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation," a 1978 book by Lawrence M. Baskir and William A. Strauss. Mr. Cheney was among the vast majority of 16 million men " about 60 percent of those eligible " who avoided the draft by legal means.
Bump to that!
Imagine how surprised they must be to find out John Kerry calls them draft dodgers!
BTTT
My husband felt the same way today when I informed him!
Let's have some links to suport that.
and took *active* steps (much like Clinton did) to stay out of harm's way.
Going to four years of college and having a child, against leaving the country and leading protests against THIS country????
It should be repeatedly noted that Kerry had four student deferments, and only enlisted in the Naval Reserve (not the Navy) when his fifth student deferment was denied.
But that's not the way THEY are counting it; according to the way they are counting Cheney's deferment, so each year counts as one!
You, in reality, you had FIVE deferments, just like Cheney. :-)
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