[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.

[Alas Babylon!]

Oh come on, Man! National Guard duty IS military duty. Brother, I spent 22 years active duty, but while I joked about Weekend Warriors like everybody else active, they showed up when asked and did their jobs. Flying a fighter jet is exectionally hazardous duty, even in peace time, and requires courage and brains.

No body with any integrity will mock the committment to country that flying a jet fighter, Guard, Reserves, or Active, requires.

[Tijeras_Slim]

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...

The leftwing has always viewed Vietnam as their "intellectual" property, to be used as they see fit. If you fled to Canada, and it serves their purpose - you're a hero. If you went and fought, and it serves their purpose - you're a hero.

[roderick]

So what is the logical end point by your reasoning if someone did not get shot at during time of war? If such people are not qualified to be elected what should be the criteria, Mensa scores? Why not do away with elections and just pick the so called "smartest" people?

Think of the mess we and the world would be in if high IQ algore was President.

[randog]

So, in a race between John McCain and George Bush, McCain would make the better president?

[SamAdams76]

I'm a USMC vet too but I don't quite agree with you that only those who serve in wartime should be elected to high office. That disqualifies a lot of good people (and qualifies many who are undeserving). What if one didn't come of age in wartime? When I served in the Marines, there were no wars going on. Should that disqualify me from high office? I don't think you meant to infer that but I kind of took it that way. What if I was running for president against a Democrat who fought in the Vietnam war. Would you automatically vote for the Democrat because I only served during peacetime?

Anyway, I agree with you that those who use their connections to avoid serving our military during a major war are perhaps unworthy of public office. That's why I'll never vote for them. Bill Clinton certainly did that by getting accepted into the National Guard to avoid the draft and then running off to England to avoid even doing that (as a Rhodes Scholar). Once Clinton got a high draft number, he came back to the U.S.A. Now that is despicable.

Perhaps our current president joined the National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. I really don't know. But as another poster said, at least he did serve the military. And piloting a jet fighter is no "skate" job.

[Leclair10]

hate to tell ya USMC but most of the soldiers on the front lines in Iraq where reservists think they thought they'd be patrolling Baghdad when they signed up for the one weekend a month duty stuff? Bush didn't exactly pick the easiest national guard duty flying an F-102, but in retrospect think those boys from vietnam wouldn't have wanted Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense and not William "go by the stats" Macnamera.

[FirstFlaBn]

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.

By your 'logic' then, WWII bomber pilot McGovern would have been your choice over WWII Navy Statesider Nixon in '72. Same with JFK and Nixon in '60. Nice system you got there.

[Wolverine]

Seeking election to the U.S. House in 1972, Kerry found it necessary to suppress reproduction of the cover picture appearing on his own book, The New Soldier. His political opponent pointed out that it depicted several unkempt youths crudely handling an American flag to mock the famous photo of the U.S. Marines at Iwo Jima. Suddenly, copies of the book became unavailable and even disappeared from libraries. But the Lowell (Mass.) Sun said of the type of person shown on its cover: "These people spit on the flag, they burn the flag, they carry the flag upside down, [and] they all but wipe their noses with it in their efforts to show their contempt for everything it still stands for."

http://peacecouncil.net/Kerrey'sGhosts.htm

'The New Soldier'

by John F. Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against The War New York: Collier Books.

NOTE THE UPSIDE DOWN FLAG

http://peacecouncil.net/images/New%20Soldier%20Cover.JPG

When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag.

[motherof 3]

"cushy National Guard duty"---you are trained and may be called up at anytime for 6 years. If you are now fighting in Iraq how is it any more "cushy" to be from a National Guard unit than a regular army unit. As for the past, how would President Bush ever know that his unit would not be called? No one knew how long the war would last and who was getting called up. Clinton was not going to take the chance. Clinton was not going to basic training, he was not going to fly a plane, and he was not going to monthly meeting. That is a big difference.