Posted on 04/15/2007 3:02:41 AM PDT by Liz
.... Rudy Giuliani carries a lot of baggage - but it's his draft-dodging past that may prove the biggest drag, prominent veterans tell New York magazine in tomorrow's issue. Speaking about terrorism and the Iraq war last week, Giuliani boasted, "It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president." But it was draft deferments that kept Giuliani, 62, out of Vietnam while he attended law school. He was granted a 2-A occupational deferment for his job as a law clerk in 1969 after his boss, the late Manhattan federal Judge Lloyd MacMahon, wrote a letter to the local draft board - a move criticized years later as rare and questionable. Law clerks were not on the 1968 list of critical jobs that qualified for occupational deferments. Giuliani "has made it clear that if he had been called up, he would have served," Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson told New York magazine. He was opposed to the war in Vietnam on "strategic and tactical" grounds," she added, although she wouldn't offer specifics.
"If Giuliani is the nominee, we're going to hammer him with ads, and it's going to be easy because the issue is simple: He's a draft dodger," Jon Soltz, an Iraq vet who served as a captain and runs VoteVets.org, a left-leaning version of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth .......a sense that a candidate can handle the role of commander-in-chief remains important to most Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Are you listing Bush among those who didn't serve in the military?
Shame on you.
Where was this in the article?
Your troll worldview is tedious and wearisome.
I knew a lot of rich people who served in Nam and a lot of poor with educational deferments, this was not a rich poor thing, that’s the argument the Dems always use. The NG was then and is now an honorable way to serve this country.
Mulefritters.
Mulefritters.
He asked about YOUR military service, not your father’s.
Only a liberal Democrat or a crazy person would think that serving your country by actually joining a branch of service would be avoiding the draft. Yet many of them actually fled the country, rather than face the draft.
Are you really Al Gore?
But were his experiences worth it, that should be the question.
Since he was an outstanding Lawyer by any measurement, I’d say that he has long since served the country in ways that being drafted wouldn’t have done.
The issue with Rudy, as with Clinton, isn’t so much that each of them avoided service in Vietnam. It is the circumstances surrounding their attempts to avoid service or to gain deferments. Clinton’s record is shot through with cowardice and deceit; Rudy’s deferment appears to to have been jury rigged.
THAT is why people got mad and used the short-hand "draft dodger."
“I knew a lot of rich people who served in Nam and a lot of poor with educational deferments,”.
True. In fact Colin Powell’s comments in the matter cited above by ‘ketsu’ are lib boilerplate. ( aka “Bullshit” for those of you in Rio Linda)
And more to the point, should we lose in 2008, who are you going to get who served in the military? There are fewer and fewer people who have served in the military (let alone in combat), due to the gap between Viet Nam and the Gulf War. I understand your desire, but at some point it is going to be impossible to find a candidate who has served.
This is one of the drawbacks of an all-volunteer military, interestingly. I also think some sort of national service for all 18-year-olds should be instituted, but since Congress would have to vote on it it's not going to happen.
But were his experiences worth it, that should be the question. Since he was an outstanding Lawyer by any measurement, I’d say that he has long since served the country in ways that being drafted wouldn’t have done.I don't really buy that. I don't think Rudy was thinking "America really needs me as a prosecutor! As much as I would love to go to Vietnam, America needs me here!". Does that change his record of (some very good) accomplishments? Not at all. That's why I think the frenzy over service is misguided.
For draft age men, there were several ways to avoid having to go over there and fight.
#1. Go to College. (The most popular method)
#2. Join the Peace Corps
#3. Get assigned to special research or study project for the government.
#4. Join the National Guard (This was the second most popular method)
#5. Be the only son available to help run the family farm
These were all deferments and millions of draft age men took advantage of one form of the above or another.
Saying that Giuliani was a draft dodger because legally he did what millions of other men his age did, merely points out that you are picking cherries for issues to degrade him.
It does not make Rudy look bad, it makes people like you look incredibly petty and vindicative.
Maybe it had something to do with Clinton protesting the war on foreign soil, ya think?
Good grief, and I thought only liberals couldn't tell the difference. Discernment sure is a rare commodity these days.
"Legally" is the operative word. Try morally.
He pulled strings to obtain a deferment to which he was not entitled.
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