[Liz]

......the news media made much of the fact that Clinton seemed to avoid the draft.......

Stating that Clinton avoided the draft is a gross understatement. Clinton is on record as saying he loathed the military.

[USMCVet]

It's interesting that 28 years after the war, we finally have articles that discuss what our "leaders" were doing while other young men did their duty fighting for their country...

With the exception of "antiwar wacko" Kerry, all of them found great excuses - or cushy National Guard duty - to avoid risking their skins. (That would include our present holder of the highest office)

Personally, I think that people that let other Americans take the risks of war during a major war, should be automatically disqualified from consideration for our highest offices. We seem to be "selecting" our candidates from the pool of greatest money/least courage.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

It's the old lamestream media bait and switch.......matters of sex and military service don't apply to dem candidates, but when a conservative 'only' did National Guard duty, gosh, that requires study...........imagine Bush receiving oral-office favors from a twenty-something intern, would the press just want to 'move on'??

[Right_in_Virginia]

Kerry was blunt about his strategy. "If the president is going to wear a flight suit on deck, I have one to match, so to speak," he said. ... If he can talk to the troops, I can talk to veterans."

Kerry sounds like a four year old. He thinks this is leadership?!

[onyx]

Kerry's going to get those medals he threw-away, shoved right up his butt IF he decides to make his stint in Vietnam a campaign issue.

[YankeeReb]

Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) -- the only one of the nine Democratic presidential candidates with battlefield experience -- has made his military record a centerpiece of his campaign.

Funny how FrankenBerry never mentions that he tossed his medals into the Potomic. Military service is great in a commander and chief, but respect for that same military you're going to command counts too. Bush may not be a war hero, but you can tell he has respect for the military and they in turn have respect for him. X42 loathed the military, and they had contempt for him. IMO, it'll be a long time before the military trusts a democrat president again.

[Criminal Number 18F]

voters, who in the past three presidential elections rejected war veterans in favor of candidates who managed to avoid combat...

By this they are saying that Gore was a combat veteran. True, he went to Vietnam, but as a uniformed writer, and he was never exposed to combat. There is an important distinction among being a military veteran, a war veteran, and a combat veteran.

Some authentic combat veterans in politics today include McCain, Kerry, and Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Some retired ones are Bob Dole and Bob Kerrey. George McGovern was a World War II combat veteran; LBJ, despite a phony silver star, was not.

A combat veteran thought likely to enter politics is General Eric K. Shinseki, who lost a leg in Vietnam but thanks to affirmative action rose several grades above where the Peter Principle should have stalled him. Not surprizingly, he will register and run as a Democrat (for Senate in Hawaii).

Even Ted Kennedy is an Army veteran (he was drafted when expelled from Harvard for cheating. After serving in Germany, he was readmitted to Harvard). But not a war veteran.

I guess my point is that there is an important distinction between military, war, and combat veterans. A variety of which can be found on all sides of the political aisle. I would just out this down to careless use of language but this paper does tend to use language in such a way as to boost its favoured politicians -- in the case of the example I cite, Gore. Military veterans tend to be very aware of this dinstinction, and respectful of each variety of veteran -- they all did their duty, as I see it.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" "I don't have to sit in the Situation Room and be taught everything. . . . I learned a lot on the front lines," he said.

Kerry's arrogance is boundless. A real hero would be humble and let others talk about his wartime accomplishments. Kerry (according to an interview he and his jockey Theresa gave to a Washington magazine last year)-has nightmares and flashbacks from Viet Nam and may have been under psychiatric care for post traumatic stress syndrome-he refused to answer the question.Notice the dig at President Bush- inferring he had to " be taught everything"-as if he were an unprepared schoolkid.Any first term President is going to have to learn the ropes,in the Situation Room.I wonder if Clinton ever bothered to go to the Situation Room-they probably had to lure him there,by telling him it was the Compromising Situations Room.

[gunnedah]

Kerry showed what he thought of the military and this country when he dumped those medals at the Vietnam Memorial.He is a two faced liberal and uses anything that fits the moment.

[Timesink]

Stating that Clinton avoided the draft is a gross understatement. Clinton is on record as saying he loathed the military.

Colonel Robert Patterson, the carrier of the "football" during the Clinton White House and author of "Dereliction of Duty," was on C-SPAN2 yesterday, and said that the entire time he worked there, every time he ended up alone with Al Gore (like both of them were in an elevator or something), he'd say "Good morning Mr. Vice-President" or whatever, and Gore IGNORED HIM. Every single time. His hatred for anyone in a military uniform was that intense.

It's been documented time and time and time again. Almost everyone in the Clinton White House despised the military, treated them not just with disdain but outright hostility whenever any of them were in the White House, etc.

It is a testament to the honor of our armed forces that not only did they not openly rebel against that Administration (either through playing the PR game or through machinations that would have led to a constitutional crisis), you never even heard about it at all except in occasional books and articles by civilians. I don't recall a single soldier ever publicly saying a word about it while Clinton was in office.