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 ...
Funny, I was thinking the same thing about this thread and the twisted article on which it's based. I have reservations about Giuliani as well, but this is ridiculous.
Do me a favor, Liz, and link me to the FR posts in which you applauded attacks on Dick Cheney from the likes of John "Okinawa" Murtha, Frank Lautenberg, and Dick Meyer, CBS News.com Editorial Director, who penned this this savage 2004 editorial. If you didn't concur with such luminaries, I can't imagine why you wouldn't have; they're completely consistent with your stated position.
I will write to you what I have written to the leftists who like to throw around the word "chickenhawk"; if that's the way you feel about being led by someone who hasn't served, demand a constitutional amendment requiring service of anyone elected to national office. But you and I both know it could never happen because that would bar anti-military liberals from being elected, and they would never support an idea that would prevent flower-in-the-rifle peaceniks from representing places like Berkeley, Ithaca, Madison, etc.
Before the services became all-volunteer (over the objection of John Kerry), there were plenty of veterans who were incompetent once they reached the Oval Office, the most recent being (if you aren't counting W.) Navy Lieutenant James Earl Carter. So why don't you and the lefties that meet you in the middle on this topic just knock it off, and accept that being a soldier is not a prerequisite for being Commander-in-Chief?
There's plenty not to like about Giuliani other than this irrelevant horsehockey.
I do. I served. And if this was a rat so would you.
Or Duncan Hunter, a former US Army ranger officer.
I AM A VET AND I CARE.
Duncan Hunter did not and has not dodged anything.
BTTT
I was not rich, I could have gone NG, I could have gone RA. Sir I was drafted and would like to what you are? An old Hippie or an offspring of one?
US51509754
No, vote for Duncan Hunter
The man logged enough hours flying a combat aircraft (training alone is dangerous enough) to instruct other pilots. The WP article you reference disingenuously leaves out that although the unit had a long waiting list, they had no waiting list for pilots, and was in fact actively recruiting them.
Your remark is an insult to all Americans who performed their military duty.So I take it you love Murtha and McCain and hate Cheney, Rush and Bush? Serving in the military *is* the mark of a patriot. However it means very little in politics.
Entering the National Guard made it less likely George Bush would be called to Vietnam than had he been drafted. But it certainly didn’t eliminate the possibility of his unit being called up.
And it’s a fact his flying had more statistical risk of death than some forms of military service in Vietnam.
“Draft Dodger” is a term better reserved for those who skipped out, burned their draft cards, or did something illegal to avoid service in time of war.
President Bush’s record of service doesn’t fit any of those categories.
The man logged enough hours flying a combat aircraft (training alone is dangerous enough) to instruct other pilots. The WP article you reference disingenuously leaves out that although the unit had a long waiting list, they had no waiting list for pilots, and was in fact actively recruiting them.Thanks for the informative response. While what you say is true, if the president had been truly interested in serving his country why wouldn't he have enlisted in a true military unit? Or waited until his student deferrment was up an enlisted then? But again, this thread is getting hijacked from the real question. Does it genuinely matter if a politician has served? If guilianni had served with distinction would that change any of his positions on abortion and the right to bear arms?
As for the President, that particular aircraft was designated for a nuclear defense role (high speed bomber interception, shoot 'em down over the Canadian Shield) and did not have an appropriate mission tasking in Vietnam.
Entering the National Guard made it less likely George Bush would be called to Vietnam than had he been drafted. But it certainly didn’t eliminate the possibility of his unit being called up. And it’s a fact his flying had more statistical risk of death than some forms of military service in Vietnam. “Draft Dodger” is a term better reserved for those who skipped out, burned their draft cards, or did something illegal to avoid service in time of war. President Bush’s record of service doesn’t fit any of those categories.A valid point. But that means that Rudy is in the clear too doesn't it?
Again I must respond. I was not rich, I could have gone NG, I could have gone RA. Sir I was drafted and would like to what you are? An old Hippie or an offspring of one? US51509754Gen X. Father in special forces.
He’s a Dodger? I thought he was a Yankee fan, like Hillary. /sarcasm
Anyone who is a Republican and who didn't serve in Viet Nam is a draft dodger. Myself, I dodged the draft by being born too late and being female.
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