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?
+ even if he didn't get those LEGAL deferments! His as of then undiscovered heart problems would have made him 4F(unfit for military service) anyway!
And there's every chance that George Bush would not be sent to fly combat missions over North Vietnam. His father was with the CIA and it could be a real problem were he to become a prisoner of war. There was little use for pilots who could not fly over enemy territory. He flew the F-102 and that aircraft was not intended to be used in a conflict like that in Vietnam. Its primary mission was to intercept Soviet bombers if necessary. I know, details, details, details. Nothing aggravates a liberal as much as having truth get in the way of their beliefs.
According to Kerry, he was in diapers.
"deferment" meant that you were exempt from consideration. Many, maybe even most of us that were drafted, also had deferments. I had deferments because I went to college. Then, when I got out, I was drafted. I guess now I'm a draft-dodger in Kerry's book.
What terrible thing did you do that got you punished with meeting John sKerry in 1963?
Did I have an obligation to volunteer because of this (too old, over forty, anyway)? No. The American volunteer military had plenty of troops to do the job. This was not true in Vietnam.
They were calling you a "WAR PIG" and a "BABY KILLER" in 1971...
Correct.
Of course, Senator Kerry also apparently applied for a deferment - more details would be useful on that front - and he joined the Naval reserves, not the Navy per se.
Being a Naval Reservist is a laudable way to serve your country, of course. But it seems as if Senator Kerry first tried to get a deferment and then, failing that, joined the Reserves rather than the Navy outright. It looks like he tried to game his chances to give himself the best shot at avoiding combat.
Whereas most Navy vets of the era just signed up for the Navy, willing to go wherever America needed them.
And, of course, thousands of them served valiantly in forward areas for more than 103 days.
"Cheney enthusiastically supported the war (he wasn't just neutral)..."
I am curious about your apparent knowledge of Cheney's pre-political life. Please share more. As a 26 year old graduate student with a wife and child, how did Cheney express his enthusiastic support of the Vietnam War?
That's what they seem to be saying. That's a winning stategy, no?
Now, let me ask you a question. Were you one of those conservative peaceniks like me who opposed the Kosovo war.
I think the point is that, although Vice President Cheney is apparently a bad guy for opting to stay home with his wife and daughter instead of volunteering, the unmarried Senator Edwards, with no family at home to support, is a great guy even though he didn't volunteer either.
So did a lot of people AWW. Some weren't called, some chose NOT to volunteer, some dodged the draft, etc...
NON service during Vietnam is not, in and of itself "dishonourable". The REASON for the non-service could be depending on the situation and the motivations of the persons not serving.
My father was in his thirties at that time, was married and had two children - he did not volunteer (he had served in the Guard in the 50's). He is a life long republican adn he supported the war in vietnam. Is it dishonarable that he did not serve?
I noticed that, too. I don't know what Hannity has in mind when he says, "Except, that many many years before the draft, Dick Cheney had also - attended Community College. . ."
I remember that they drafted Elvis in the 1950's. ;-)
ED said it this morning.
I just joined at 18 out of high school in late 1970. My number was 44 the year before, I didn't have college money, and my cousin joined because his number was pulled. We did the "buddy system" thing in BCT.
He went to Nam and I didn't. Luck of the draw in 1971, I guess.
So, you're telling me that a deferment took your name out of the lottery EVEN IF your birthdate was one of the ones selected. (Was it a double lottery...one for birthdate and then one for name? Or did they just start with the "A's" and work their way to the "Z's?")
IMHO opinion, I was a better debater than Kerry. He was arrogant and imperial. I paid close attention to the weaknesses of my own side, and specialized in the counterattack at the end of the debate.
I graduated in '64, two years ahead of Kerry, three years ahead of Pataki, and four years ahead of Bush. (I was in the same class as Joe Lieberman, and knew and respected him very much, at that time.) For better or worse, Yale in the 60's was turning out a lot of people who later wound up in national politics. Unfortunately, entirely too many of them are leftists.
John / Billybob
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