Deserter aims to be first veteran to challenge Iraq war's morality
Chicago Tribune Mar. 14, 2004
""We are asking the military to treat (Mejia) the same way that the military treated President George Bush when he was in the Texas National Guard. That is, his alleged AWOL or desertion and failure to report to Alabama was treated through administrative channels rather than acted upon judicially," he said. "
WEIGHTY QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT
Roanoke Times & World News, Roanoke VA. Mar 10, 2004
"For whatever reason he might have had, George W. Bush opted for flight training with the Texas Air National Guard and thereby picked up a six-year commitment of obligated service. We are now shown a time line with major pay gaps from April to October 1972 and a one- year-early release from his six-year contractual obligation with the Guard. To the legions of straight shooters who fulfilled their obligation over the years, this is patriotic heresy and glaringly unfair.
But equally important is the way in which Bush was employed as a pilot. A check of his log book will show the date, type aircraft, bureau number and time duration of each flight. These logbooks are a source of pride to all aviators, and they are typically kept by squadron personnel who authenticate all entries at the end of each month. It is a simple matter for the president to dust off that old log book and prove to his critics that he really was defending the nation on those perilous flights over the Gulf of Mexico.
But let's be specific in our questions to the president. When did these flights occur? When did they stop? And above all, how could a shortening of obligated service be justified while the nation was at war in Vietnam? From the standpoint of credibility, Bush must provide honest answers to these questions. "
George and me
Joe Spooner, IN MY OPINION, The Oregonian, 3/11/04
"...And unlike George Bush, I served to the very last day (but not a day more) of my service commitment. There are even people who remember me doing so, and I didn't even become president. "
Bush Caught Embellishing His National Guard Service on Government Web Sites
Walter V. Robinson , Boston Globe, 2/28/04
"Questions remain about President Bush's long-ago service in the Texas Air National Guard. But the basic outline of his Guard service is not in dispute: After a year in flight school, Bush spent five months learning how to fly an F-102 fighter-interceptor and then 22 months as a part-time pilot. He stopped flying in April 1972 -- 30 months before his formal commitment would normally have ended.
Nonetheless, the biography of Bush on the US State Department's website credits him with almost six years in the F-102's cockpit -- two years on active duty flying the plane and nearly four more years of part-time service as an F-102 pilot....
Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, asked yesterday about that language, said: 'It does not reflect the facts of his service. It will be corrected.'"
Bush remembered from social contacts
Brett J. Blackledge, The Birmingham News, 2/28/04
"None have specific recollections about Bush and the National Guard. Some heard he was serving but never saw for themselves. All of them remember his time with Winton "Red" Blount's unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign.
... he lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath cottage in Montgomery's historic Cloverdale neighborhood, the furnished home of a 68-year-old widow.
That's what the Smith family remembers most about Bush, how he left their aunt's home damaged, dirty and dumpy.
"He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," said Mary Smith, whose family found damaged walls, broken furnishings and a chandelier destroyed after Bush left the house. A bill sent to collect the damages went unpaid, the family said."
George W. Bush is a deserter!
BillyJack.com, 2/27/04
"Here is the ironclad, indisputable proof that based on just the facts that Bush and his campaign admit happened, under the Texas Code of Military Justice, Section 432.130 & 432.131, Bush is unequivocally and absolutely guilty of multiple violations of being both AWOL and a Deserter subject to court martial."
Bush Camp's Lies Keep Guard Issue in Spotlight
Josh Marshall,
The Hill, February 26th, 2004
"Just when you start to wonder why and how much President Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service record should be an issue in the 2004 campaign, a light goes on over your head. Why? Because he and his surrogates and spokesmen simply won’t stop lying about it....
Indeed, the president himself doesn’t even agree with Racicot. Two weeks ago, when Tim Russert asked him point-blank whether “volunteer[ed] or enlist[ed] to go” to Vietnam, the president responded, “No, I didn’t. You’re right.” So what in the world is Racicot talking about?"
1st Lt. Bush
Editorial,
The Stuart News, FL February 22, 2004
Companies fire employees all the time for fudging, even omitting, details that should have been reported on their resumes. While President Bush's National Guard service might go back over 30 years, the American people nevertheless deserve a truthful explanation of just what his "Alabama experience" was.
A young George Bush in Montgomery in 1972; Who saw him, who didn't
The Montgomery Independent, February 18, 2004
"Ms. Curtis told the Associated Press that she cannot remember seeing Mr. Bush in uniform or going to Guard duty while in Alabama. She told the Los Angeles Times that Mr. Bush had told her that he was in the Alabama National Guard, but she never saw him in uniform. She said, according to the LA Times, that she also never saw a uniform or National Guard material in his Montgomery apartment or in his car."
Political influence
John David Rose,
Carolina Morning News, SC 2/20/04
In fact, with reporters suddenly scrambling for confirmation that Bush actually did his National Guard duty, very few people have turned up certain that they saw him in Alabama.
Why is the White House fighting so hard to bury this story? Because it's the truth, and Bush's campaign to retain the Oval Office can't stand the truth.
George and the Guard
Lou Dubose,
LA Weekly 2/13/04
Rather than only asking how a young George W. got out of the National Guard, we ought to ask how he got in when 350 American men were dying each week in Vietnam and 100,000 were on National Guard waiting lists across the country.
Bush's records: Still AWOL
Eric Boehlert, Salon.com 2/10/04
President Bush's insistence on Sunday that he released all his military documents during the 2000 campaign has only added to the controversy that surrounds his service in the Texas Air National Guard. In fact, there is no indication Bush has ever authorized that all his military records, including those considered personal under provisions of the Privacy Act, be made public.
In his appearance this Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Bush claimed "the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records." Asked if he would release "everything," such as his military pay stubs, tax returns, and perhaps even medical records, to prove he served as required between 1972 and 1973, Bush replied "absolutely." He added, "We did so in 2000, by the way."
But the facts suggest otherwise. "I was pretty shocked when I heard him say he released all his records in 2000," says Martin Heldt, whose article for TomPaine.com in 2000 was among the first on the issue and who maintains a Web site featuring Bush's key National Guard documents. ...
... In 2000, Heldt wrote to the National Guard Bureau, as well as the Air Force, seeking a detailed accounting of Bush's military records. The chief of the National Guard Bureau's support services division informed Heldt that some of his requests were off limits: "Social security numbers, medical records and personnel and administrative information of Mr. Bush and others have been withheld, as release of this information would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of the personnel affected." ...
George McGovern on CNBC
Transcript by R. Prichard as posted on Orcinus, January 28, 2004
Siegenthaler: I just want to talk about Wesley Clark for a second . . . because he had a tough time in some cases in New Hampshire. Some people said his endorsement from Michael Moore where he called President Bush a deserter --- and then Wesley Clark refused to distance himself from Michael Moore was really a difficult time for him. And that he stumbled a couple of times up there in New Hampshire. How do you react to that?
McGovern: Well look, I know he was severely criticized for not rebuking the contention that George W. Bush was a deserter.
But what would you call him?
He avoided the war in Viet Nam by signing up for the Texas National Guard -- and then didn't show up.
He missed half of his time by not showing up for the National Guard training.
Maybe there's some kinder word than deserter. But in my book that's not too far from the truth.
And I think General Clark is a man who never backed away from battle -- who volunteered to be a part of the armed forces of this country -- as I did.
People like that are not going to defend George W. Bush on his military record.
Siegenthaler: (Stunned) Issues of war and peace continue to be a controversy -- and a part of this campaign as we head through 2004.
Bush’s War Stories Simply Don’t Fly
Joe Conason, New York Observer, January 28, 2004
"George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not logged enough flight hours" to qualify for a combat assignment. Before going on to recall the "challenging moments" that involved close formation drills at night during poor weather, he adds: "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years."
In light of what journalists and other researchers have learned since the publication of Mr. Bush’s book, his account is unmistakably fraudulent. "
With the Race Changing Fast, Clark Adjusts
Katherine Seelye, New York Times, January 26, 2004
"... But General Clark has spent much of his time here explaining controversial statements. Perhaps most damaging has been his failure to repudiate comments by Mr. Moore, who called Mr. Bush a deserter for his unexplained absence from the Air National Guard between April 1972 and September 1973.
Mr. Bush's actions did not meet the technical definition of desertion."
AWOL? Deserter? Bring It On!
Bob Fertik, Democrats.com, January 25, 2004
"So this raises a crucial question: What are the facts? Did Bush go 'AWOL'? Is he a 'deserter'? Michael Moore isn't backing down. He quickly wrote a letter called George W. Bush, A.W.O.L., which accuses the media of deliberately burying the AWOL issue in 2000 to protect Bush, but raising the 'deserter' issue now to distract voters 'from the real issues: the war, the economy, and the failures of the Bush administration.;"
CNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer
Transcript, January 25, 2004
BLITZER: Terry McAuliffe, when Wesley Clark was on that stage with Michael Moore, one of his campaign supporters, and Moore called President Bush a deserter and General Clark refused to distance himself from that comment right away, was that a huge blunder? You don't believe that President Bush was a deserter, do you?
MCAULIFFE: Well, Wolf, in order to to be a deserter, you have to actually show up.
Let's just deal with the facts. As you know, when President Bush got out of college in 1968, it was at the height of the draft. It's well known that the president, former president, used some of his influence to get George Bush into the Texas National Guard.
He then wanted to go to Alabama and work on a Senate campaign. So he went to Alabama for a year while he was in the National Guard, and he never showed up.
I mean, I would call it AWOL. You call it whatever you want. But the issue is the president did not show up for the year he was in Alabama, when he was supposed to show up for the National Guard.
George W. Bush, A.W.O.L
Michael Moore, Mike's Message, January 23, 2004
"The pundits immediately went berserk after the debate. As well they should. Because they know that they -- and much of the mainstream media -- ignored this Bush AWOL story when it was first revealed by an investigation in the Boston Globe (in 2000). The Globe said it appeared George W. Bush skipped out in the middle of his Texas Air National Guard service -- and no charges were ever brought against him. It was a damning story, and Bush has never provided any documents or evidence to refute the Globe's charges.
George W. Bush was missing for at least a 12 month period. That is an undisputed fact. If you or I did that, we would serve time."
Let It Out
Indianapolis Star, January 22, 2004
"How can a man who has sent more people to their death than any other governor, who was AWOL from the National Guard for more than a year while many outstanding young men were killed in Vietnam, and who has sent many to their deaths in a war that was launched on misinformation be considered moral? Just because someone says they are moral does not make it true."
20 Questions - What a Difference a Year Makes
Kenneth Neill, The Memphis Flyer, January 4, 2004
"...13) Would we have believed that one of the best-selling toys of the 2003 Christmas Season would turn out to be an "action figure" of George W. Bush as "U.S. President and Naval Commander" commemorating his May carrier-deck landing in San Diego Harbor in May, at which time he declared "victory" in an Iraq war we have not yet and may never win?
14) Would we have possibly believed that the national media would devote countless broadcast hours and thousands of newspaper line-inches to celebration of this San Diego event, without hardly mentioning the fact that "Naval Commander" Bush was AWOL from his Reserve unit for over a year in the 1970s? ... "
Crossfire, Dec. 19th 2003
Transcript
BEGALA: Well, as has our president, who has a kind of -- he said, bring 'em on, which -- I never served in the military. You have. I don't like the idea of my commander in chief taunting people who are trying to kill our soldiers. But Bob raised a moment ago Governor Dean's lack of military service. It's absolutely accurate. Do you think that's something the president would really want to raise, give that he didn't show up for a year of his National Guard duty and that Dick Cheney, under oath, testified that he had other priorities in the '60s, rather than serving his country in the military, the way you served? That's probably not an issue that they're likely to raise, is it?
LIDDY: Well, Dick Cheney isn't the president. And he's not going to be a candidate for the president.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: But the president did fail to show up for his duty for an entire year.
LIDDY: My understanding is -- and I think you mentioned it last time we were here.
BEGALA: Yes. It bothers me.
LIDDY: You said the commanding general said he didn't see him. And that really a reflection of your not having been in the service.
BEGALA: But there's no record whatsoever. There's not a scrap of paper that suggests he ever showed up for that year of duty. And the general says, I would have known. He didn't show up.
LIDDY: Well, No, the general wouldn't have known. He was a captain. And let me tell you. When you're at the first lieutenant and captain level, you don't get to see generals. You don't want to see generals. They don't want to see you.
BEGALA: The written record has been pored over by "The Boston Globe." And there's not a shred of evidence that he ever showed up that year. Mr. Bush says he showed up. But there's no record of it.
NOVAK: Can we terminate this debate?
BEGALA: Well...
NOVAK: Thank you.
BEGALA: That's a sure sign that Bob has lost the debate. ...
Local Reaction Mixed
Daniel Barlow, Brattleboro Reformer, 12/16/03
"...One Vietnam War veteran from Brattleboro, whose 37-year-old son is currently serving in Iraq, called President Bush a "coward" and a "playboy."
"He was AWOL during Vietnam but he has no problem sending our sons and daughters into war," said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. "He's not a good leader." "
Support for Soldiers Gladdens Editor's Heart
Mike Hudson, Niagara Falls Reporter 12/9/03
"...As long as I'm writing about Iraq, I should mention that I've still got a major problem with that chickenhawk, AWOL, uniform-wearing fool who sits in the Oval Office.
President Kennedy was a legitimate war hero and I never saw him wear a uniform while sitting in the president's office. Likewise, Dwight David Eisenhower or Harry Truman. Even Jimmy Carter, who had a respected record as a submarine commander during the Cold War, eschewed military trappings for a cardigan sweater during his failed presidency.
But now we have a coward who used his daddy's connections to get him out of Vietnam with a wardrobe so full of military uniforms it would make Benito Mussolini blush.
New York Sen. Hillary Clinton walked around the streets of Baghdad while President Bush hid with an aplomb he hasn't shown since his Jockey-staining performance of Sept. 11, 2001. He went there only because the picture of him standing on the aircraft carrier in front of the "Mission Accomplished" sign looks pretty silly today."
Is Bush a Bigger Liar Than Clinton?
Bill Gallagher, Niagara Falls Reporter 12/9/03
"But the tipsy Congress couldn't get away with it without the help of the former drunk, and frequently AWOL, national guardsman in the White House. George W. Bush has never vetoed an appropriations bill and won't as long as he gets the goodies he wants, like the prescription drug benefit and the $87 billion for the Iraq colony. Here's where it gets hilarious. While the president does not give a hoot about the debt he's created at home, he names former Secretary of State James A. Baker III as a special envoy to try to deal with Iraq's crushing debt. ... ...I guess it's OK to build a political empire and get votes at home with the enormous burden of debt, but the same public policy is unfair for the people in Iraq. ... "
Bush's risks taken for maximum payoff
William O'Rourke, Sun-Times, December 7, 2003
"The aircraft carrier landing, however appreciated by those who got to meet and greet Bush, did resurrect the president's own dismal service record during the Vietnam War period, when he stopped reporting to and flying in his National Guard unit for nearly a year, under still unresolved circumstances. ... "
Salon.com, Dec. 5 2003
Terry Dobbelaere, Letter from a Veteran
"Then it started. First, a veteran around 50 years old in my area said, "I can't believe he has the guts to wear that uniform!" Others around the room started making remarks like, "Count the lies!" and "Didn't he learn anything on that aircraft carrier?" I'll clean up the language, but not long into Shrub's obvious photo op there were so many men and a few women veterans either yelling at each other or at the TV that staff members came in thinking someone had a serious health issue, or that perhaps an unstable patient had gone into a rage. "
Slate.com, Dec. 2 2003
Takes One To Know One: In the chutzpah war, Dean has Bush's draft number
"... Where did Dean and his lieutenants get this kind of gall? Maybe from the guy they're attacking. In February 2000, Bush, a governor with no foreign policy experience, faced ex-POW John McCain in the do-or-die South Carolina Republican presidential primary. What was Bush's military record? He had joined the Texas Air National Guard to escape the Vietnam draft. A former speaker of the Texas House had sworn in an affidavit that he had made phone calls, at the behest of a friend of Bush's father, to get Bush into the Guard. As the Boston Globe later discovered from interviews and government documents, Bush "was all but unaccounted for" during the latter part of his Guard service. "For a full year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills required of part-time guardsmen," the Globe reported. "
Berkshire [PA] Eagle, November 29, 2003
Bush Delivers a Turkey
"...It is worth remembering that while the president enjoys being photographed with soldiers he passed on an opportunity to become a soldier himself, ducking out to the National Guard -- and then going AWOL from the guard. If he is now truly concerned about the welfare of America's soldiers he will devote his time to persuading foreign nations to join the cause in Iraq while Iraqis labors to set up their own government. That would be of more help than a brief campaign appearance.
The May 1 campaign appearance produced the Flight-jacket George doll, and perhaps the Thanksgiving photo op will give us Army-jacketed George delivering a plate of turkey. The turkey can symbolize his Iraq policy."
Alan Bisbort, Hartford Advocate, November 27, 2003
War Wounds - Who really supports the troops?
"...A few weeks back, one of the papers in which this column appears printed a heated missive from a reader who accused me of "mocking the military every chance I get." Normally, I let comments like that speak for themselves -- I had my say, the reader gets his response, fair and square. However, this one went beyond the pale, claiming I "politicized the deaths of brave American troops," and it struck me as a particularly low and ill-informed blow. ...
... I mourn the deaths of these soldiers. With each death, in fact, my loathing for the leaders who put them in harm's way grows. Millions of us "supported the troops" for the entire year leading up to this debacle in Iraq by screaming ourselves hoarse that our best and bravest NOT be put in harm's way. At least, not for such deceptive and ever-changing reasons given by a commander in chief who went AWOL from his own military duties and a vice president who "had other things" to attend to while 55,000 members of his own generation died in the rice paddies of Southeast Asia. "
The Daily Howler, November 26, 2003
The Times trashed Dean right on page one. It was different with Candidate Bush:
"Indeed, the Washington press paid little attention to Bush’s “puzzling” record. And no one ignored Bush’s service interruption any more than the “liberal” New York Times. Dean’s draft record would be limned on page one. But at the liberal New York Times, Bush’s “puzzling” absence from duty was almost completely ignored.
Just how odd was the New York Times’ coverage? On May 21, 2000, Nicholas Kristof began an intermittent series of biographical profiles of Bush. Most installments were roughly 3800 words long; on June 10, for example, the Times published a 3700-word Kristof piece about Bush’s days in prep school. And on July 11, the Times published the fourth installment in Kristof’s series—a look at Bush’s service in the Guard. But the story was only 1200 words long—and it didn’t even mention the flap about Bush’s missing year of service. It had been more than six weeks since Robinson’s story appeared in the Boston Globe. And New York Times readers still hadn’t been told that such a gap had been found in Bush’s record..."
Crossfire, 11/11/03
Paul Begala and Robert Novak [Transcript]
PAUL BEGALA, CO-HOST: ...Well, President Bush certainly has an odd way of thanking veterans. His administration is considering closing 58 military schools and 19 commissaries, a move that the garrison commander at Fort Stewart calls -- quote -- "a betrayal" -- unquote. The Bush administration also opposes extending health benefits for National Guardsmen, supports a $1.4 billion cut in military housing, and left a military -- one million military children out of the child tax credit.
Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. Mr. Bush apparently likes playing dress-up fighter pilot, but now, just as during Vietnam, when our military really needs him, George W. Bush is AWOL.
Now, of course, the reason that I'm free to criticize our president is because of the sacrifice and service of America's veterans, including CROSSFIRE's own Marine Corporal James Carville and Army Lieutenant Bob Novak. So, on this Veterans Day, thank you, vets, for my freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
NOVAK: You're welcome, Paul.
BEGALA: Thank you, Bob.
NOVAK: But, you know, I would like you to have at least a modicum of accuracy in these nightly screeds and Bush bashing. He was never AWOL in the Reserve. AWOL is a military offense, court-martial. And he was not AWOL. And it's a libel for you to keep saying it.
BEGALA: He was AWOL. Sue me, Mr. President.
(BELL RINGING)
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: His general said so.
NOVAK: That's a lie. That's not true at all.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: His commanding general says so.
NOVAK: [new subject]
Bush's Early Discharge
They also serve who attend B-school.
By Timothy Noah, Slate.Com, Updated Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003
"Certain documents available on the Web are so piquant that commentary seems superfluous. In honor of Veterans Day, Chatterbox serves up an objet trouvé concerning President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard. The found object is young Dubya's request -- four months after his superiors reported they'd seen hide nor hair of him during the previous year -- that he be discharged early so he can attend Harvard Business School. Enjoy. (You may need to click on the lower right-hand corner of the document to enlarge it to readable form.)
If you need a refresher course on President Bush's elusive career in the Air National Guard (first reported in May 2000 by the Boston Globe's Walter V. Robinson), David Corn of The Nation provides one here. A complete set of documents concerning the president's military record, obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by Martin Heldt, can be found here. For a chaser, you might sample the Veterans Day speech President Bush gave today, in which he said, "Every veteran understands the meaning of personal accountability and loyalty and shared sacrifice."
WAR AND REMEMBRANCE
A President MIA from Public Grief Over Casualties
The ignored American dead come home to Dover
Jaime O'Neill, San Francisco Chronicle 11/9/03
"This same president's administration was going to cut benefits to service members until the idea became public and a stink got raised over such a move at a time when the richest among us have been receiving bountiful tax cuts and profits.
This same president has also done little to ensure that those young men and women in Iraq have proper gear. It's been widely reported, for example, that insufficient numbers of Kevlar vests were requisitioned for Iraq. Back home, medical facilities have been ill-prepared to treat the injured as they return.
President Bush loves the military, of course, but why was he so anxious to shirk service in it? Why was he AWOL for an entire year of his stint in the cushy Air National Guard slot his father's connections provided for him?
President Bush loves the military, of course, but unlike his father or his immediate predecessor, he does not greet the fallen dead as they come back home in coffins and body bags. He does not deign to appear at Dover to honor their sacrifice. ..."
Dose of Reality Packs a Punch
Jimmy Breslin - Newsday - Nov 4, 2003
"...Then almost simultaneously, 16 soldiers were killed in Iraq. The government, by its Ferris wheel reasoning, announces that the violence proves that we are succeeding in Iraq and this incites the small group of murderers. Of course they do not allow anybody to see the bodies being brought into Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, as that might make too much of a negative impression on people, seeing 16 dead in boxes on a hangar floor.
Bush the President says we will tough it out, "we will stay the course." Upon being given his chance to serve, he couldn't stay for National Guard weekends.
Cheney the Vice President says we will "stick it out to the end." When he had his chance, he got four deferments, or five. Whatever it was it was the United States record for deferments, one war."
No light at the end of this tunnel, George
Eric Margolis, Toronto Sun, 11/2/03
"... The attack left Prof. Wolfowitz visibly shaken. Here was the fire-eating warlord, the tough neo-con theoretician who had sent American GIs into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, trembling in his brand-new chukka boots after the tiniest taste of real war. Neither Bush, Cheney, nor Wolfowitz ever served in their nation's armed forces, though all were of military age during Vietnam - unless you count Bush's sporadic appearances at the Texas Air National Guard. ..."
Strictly Business
By Paul Krugman, The New York Review of Books - November 20, 2003
"... Conason gives the best accounts yet of the peculiar military and business career of George W. Bush, from his service—or lack thereof —in the Texas Air National Guard, to the deals that allowed a repeated failure in business to emerge as a multimillionaire. Bush, Conason writes, was admitted to the Texas Air National Guard "ahead of hundreds of other young men on the waiting list" and "despite his low score on the pilot aptitude test." More surprisingly, he failed to report for duty for an entire year, between May 1972 and May 1973. By this point, he had already been suspended from flight duty and reassigned to an alternative unit because he failed to show up for an annual physical (Conason points out that a strict drug-testing policy had gone into effect a few months before Bush was to have his exam). ... "
Republicans on the Ropes
The GOP, the bad and the ugly
It takes a village idiot to raze a democracy
Alan Bisbort - Hartford Advocate - October 30, 2003
"... Last and least, former first lady Barbara Bush recently described the 12 Democratic candidates for president as a "sorry group." The Democratic lineup contains two decorated war veterans, a Rhodes Scholar, a top West Point grad, a longtime legislator, a successful mayor and governor, and numerous other public servants, none of whom warrant such an undignified characterization. Especially not from the matriarch of three substance-abusing grandchildren, a felonious whoremonger son (Neil), ethically challenged son (Marvin), HMO-fund-embezzler and election thief (Jeb), coke-sniffing AWOL Air Guard pilot son (W.), vehicularly homicidal daughter-in-law (Laura) and father- and grandfather-in-law who traded with Nazi Germany."
Snark Attack
Thomas Shapley, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 25, 2003
"Perhaps emulating their commander in chief when he was about their age, more than a dozen U.S. troops have turned up AWOL -- having failed to return from their two-week rest & relaxation break from the war in Iraq. From May 1, 1972, until April 30, 1973 -- Bush reportedly failed to show up for duty in the Texas Air National Guard."
Altercation
by Eric Alter, October 20 2003
"I see from the TV listings that CNN had a program on Sunday night in which "former President Bush returns to the island where his aircraft was shot down in World War II." The members of his son's cushy National Guard unit are still waiting for him to return and complete his term of service."
A Weak Case is Being Made
by Chip Ramsey, Editor, Manchester [TN] Times October 16, 2003
"...Bush has had a free ride on the fact that he went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard during the heyday of his wild youth. Remember the daily mantra of reminders that President Clinton was a draft dodger? "
Dumbing down U.S. politics
by Linda McQuaig, Toronto Star, 10/12/03
... the new right-wing populists, in addition to being mental underachievers, also have significant character deficiencies — something that would be considered more of a problem if the media paid it more attention.
But the media downplayed the importance of Bush's drunk driving conviction — and his obvious attempt to conceal it — when it came to light just before the presidential election. And the media haven't been very interested in Bush's absence from his National Guard duty for months at a time during the Vietnam War — an absence that some observers believe constitutes the crime (punishable by death under American law) of wartime desertion.
A Veteran Applauds KB Toys
by Maureen A. Griswold, Saturday, October 11, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
"The defect with the Action Figure? Something vital is missing: George W. Bush's actual military service record. True, our "Deserter in Chief" has yet to voluntarily release his record, he’s amnesic if questioned, but don't worry -- enough of it has been obtained per the Freedom of Information Act and is posted on the Internet to hang "Top Gun" out to dry. You, me, the whole world -- heck, even Dubya himself -- can go to www.awolbush.com and www.users.cis.net/coldfeet/document.htm and get an eyeful of the real deal. All you have to do, Mr. Glazer, is photocopy the following four documents I've enclosed for you and include them in each Dubya Action Figure box..."
Dumbing down U.S. politics
by Linda McQuaig, Toronto Star October 12 2003
"...Interestingly, the new right-wing populists, in addition to being mental underachievers, also have significant character deficiencies — something that would be considered more of a problem if the media paid it more attention.
But the media downplayed the importance of Bush's drunk driving conviction — and his obvious attempt to conceal it — when it came to light just before the presidential election. And the media haven't been very interested in Bush's absence from his National Guard duty for months at a time during the Vietnam War — an absence that some observers believe constitutes the crime (punishable by death under American law) of wartime desertion. "
President coming to town on Thursday
by Shir Haberman, Portsmouth, NH Herald Wednesday, October 8, 2003
New Hampshire Democratic Party spokesman Pamela Walsh said she finds it ironic that Bush would choose to meet with Air National Guard members, given his record serving with the Air Guard in Texas.
"He signed up with the Air National Guard in Texas, then he asked for a transfer to work on a political campaign in Alabama and never finished his time," Walsh said.
A February 2003 article that appeared on MotherJones.com confirmed Walsh’s allegations.
The Truth is Puttin’ on its Shoes: An Inquiry Into the "Innocent" Mr. Rove
by James C. Moore, Co-Author of "Bush’s Brain," Buzzflash Guest Commentary, 9/30/03
"Rove’s relationship with Novak is widely known in the Washington press corps. During the presidential campaign, when the chorus of questions was being asked about Mr. Bush, and the Texas Air National Guard, reporters wanted to know where Mr. Bush went during his time on assignment in Alabama. His commander said the future president had never shown up for duty. Rove told the campaign reporters that they were "making too much of a few missed meetings." In 48 hours, the exact language was used on network television by Novak, who described the controversy of Mr. Bush’s missing years as "a few missed meetings." Novak was not on the press plane to hear Rove’s original comments."
Bush goes AWOL when soldiers need care
By George McEvoy, Palm Beach Post, 9/20/03
"The Bush administration is trying to cheat the veterans while continuing to send today's troops back into action, all at the same time, thereby creating more casualties and new disabled veterans who can be denied benefits. And don't think the troops don't know. "
It's time to take off the gloves: Let the Bush bashing begin
Jack Mabley, Suburban Chicago Daily Herald, 9/17/03
"If Rove goes after Gen. Clark, it would open the gates to expose Bush's military record. Bush simply was AWOL for the final year of his enlistment in the Texas National Guard. This is fully documented on www.awolbush.com."
Clark's Candidacy Changes Campaign's Calculus
Jim Hightower, Yahoo.com, Fri Sep 19, 6:04 PM ET
"For months now, the prospect of running against Gen. Wesley Clark has been gnawing at GOP strategists, haunting their otherwise pleasant reveries about a roll-over-'em-with-a-bulldozer re-election campaign. They know it took a marketing genius like Karl Rove to sell President Bush as a commanding military leader. Without Rove's Madison Avenue strategy (and the cooperation of a fawning press), Bush, who neglected his fighter-pilot duty when he was in the National Guard, would be less Top Gun and more Stop! Run! "
W, The Toy Soldier
The Salt Lake Tribune, September 19, 2003
... Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. Senator, you launched your campaign standing in front of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier. As a Vietnam combat veteran, are you trying to blunt whatever popularity President Bush may have as a wartime leader?
"Avast thar! Don't be mentionin' the name of that high-born land lubber in the same breath as 'combat!' The nearest that election-stealin' bilge rat ever came to a good fight was hiding from his National Guard mates during the Vietnam War, shiver me timbers!"
[Webmaster's note - in case you were wondering, that one is satire, posted on National Talk Like a Pirate Day.]
W, The Toy Soldier
Jim Hightower, Pulse of the Twin Cities, 18 September, 2003
"Holy Audie Murphy! A “military hero”? George W? He’s the guy who ducked duty in Vietnam by having a politically-connected family friend pull strings so he would avoid being drafted. Even after he was slipped into the Air National Guard, he’s the guy who went AWOL for an entire year of duty. He’s also the guy who shamelessly uses our military forces for his own political gain, including that made-for-TV military stunt landing aboard the aircraft carrier where he declared the Iraqi war to be “over”—a political pronouncement that is cruelly cynical for the families of more than 100 U.S. soldiers who have been killed in Iraq since then."
Mistakes of Vietnam repeated with Iraq
Max Cleland, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/18/03
"The president of the United States decides to go to war against a nation led by a brutal dictator supported by one-party rule. That dictator has made war on his neighbors. The president decides this is a threat to the United States.
In his campaign for president he gives no indication of wanting to go to war. In fact, he decries the overextension of American military might and says other nations must do more. However, unbeknownst to the American public, the president's own Pentagon advisers have already cooked up a plan to go to war. All they are looking for is an excuse.
Based on faulty intelligence, cherry-picked information is fed to Congress and the American people. The president goes on national television to make the case for war, using as part of the rationale an incident that never happened. Congress buys the bait -- hook, line and sinker -- and passes a resolution giving the president the authority to use "all necessary means" to prosecute the war.
The war is started with an air and ground attack. Initially there is optimism. The president says we are winning. The cocky, self-assured secretary of defense says we are winning. As a matter of fact, the secretary of defense promises the troops will be home soon. ...
... Military commanders are left with extended tours of duty for servicemen and women who were told long ago they were going home. We are keeping American forces on the ground, where they have become sitting ducks in a shooting gallery for every terrorist in the Middle East.
Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President. Sorry you didn't go when you had the chance. "
Bush eating words on war's end
Lynn Sweet, Washington Bureau Chief, Chicago Sun-Times, September 11, 2003
"McAuliffe reminded us that there is still some mystery about what Bush "was required to do in Alabama in the National Guard.'' It's never been proved that Bush showed up for all his drill duties when he was in the Texas Air National Guard, and the controversy never got much traction in the 2000 campaign."
Bush's Absence At Soldier's Wake Insults the District
Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, September 08, 2003
"In the District, President Bush serves as commander in chief of the D.C. National Guard, the way governors do in their states. So you might have expected him to show up yesterday at the funeral for Spec. Darryl T. Dent, 21, the D.C. guardsman who was killed recently in Iraq.
Canaan Baptist Church, where Dent's funeral was held, is at 16th and Newton streets NW, not five miles from the White House. Bush could have jogged to the wake, had a courier drop off flowers and a card or, at the very least, telephoned the slain soldier's family.
Call Bush AWOL, missing in action -- or just too busy fundraising. But he blew it.
"We haven't heard from him or the White House, not a word," said Marion Bruce, Dent's aunt and family spokeswoman. "I don't want to speak for the whole family, but I am not pleased."
Incompetent, hypocritical - Bush deserves impeachment
Marcia Weis, Roanoke Times, September 07, 2003
"Bush's bloody lies are costing lives and have destroyed the world's respect for us. Our country is now almost universally viewed as a blundering invader and occupier, even in Iraq, which we have "liberated." An intelligent leader would have been more knowledgeable about the culture and political divisions before going off half-cocked.
If ever a president deserved impeachment, it's George W. Bush. The photo op of this incompetent, hypocritical AWOL creature standing on the deck of a U.S. warship proclaiming the end of the war should nauseate any decent American..."
No more dancing around the truth
Robert J. Havel, Orlando Sentinel, September 04, 2003
"We have danced around the truth for months now. President Bush has lied to us, on many issues, almost surely; on Iraq, certainly. The president told us we had to conquer Iraq -- all by ourselves -- because Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with Osama bin Laden in the 9-11 infamy. He told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that threatened the world. He said Saddam was developing a nuclear bomb.
"...The media, not long ago, were dogged in their pursuit of a stained dress, a gift of a four-in-hand, a book of poems, a decades-old land deal, a missing file, a lie about a tryst or two; slavish in their regurgitation of leaks from an obsessed independent counsel. Will the media today, mesmerized by Rummy, the Svengali, or cowed by the bamboozling Bush, awake from their stupor and cast aside their obeisance to a commander-in-chief who uses "terrorism" to scare us into subjection and who was, in a war not long ago, AWOL?"
Father knows best
Opinion Editor, Vanguard - University of South Alabama News - Aug 27, 2003
"My father, a so-called "Reagan Democrat" with an affinity for lovable crackpots such as McCain and Perot ("just because he's crazy doesn't mean he's incompetent"), kept warning me about Bush.
"He likes war because he's never been in one," he told me. During Vietnam he got into the National Guard to keep from being drafted, and then went AWOL for a year! Look at Afghanistan. He was all over it while the bombs were dropping, but now that the action is over it's becoming the same chaotic mess that gave rise to the Taliban in the first place..."
So desperate for heroes
by Tom Brazaitis
The Plain Dealer, Cleveland OH, Aug 24, 2003
"Sure, Bush was a passenger on a plane that landed for a photo-op on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln a few months ago, but is that the stuff of heroes? When it was actually his turn to serve during Vietnam, Bush, according to published reports, used connections to get into the National Guard, was inexplicably absent from duty for several months and got an expedited discharge."
Let's quit abusing military service as political fodder
by O. Ricardo Pimentel
August 26, 2003, Arizona Republic
"Yes, President Bush did . But we all know that his father got him into a Texas National Air Guard unit that spared him, along with others with well-connected dads, from having to risk serving in Vietnam. And he still essentially went missing from his unit because he apparently had better things to do..."
When it comes to war, Bush is an inaction figure
by Deborah Morse-Kahn
August 23, 2003, StarTribune.com (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
"For $40 you can now buy a President Bush action figure, dressed in a naval flight suit like the one he wore on his photo op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln three months ago.
This is the same President Bush who demanded to be flown to the vessel, halting the ship's progress so he could make the flight on taxpayers' dollars; the same President Bush who never showed up for National Guard duty for a period of approximately one year in the early '70s to avoid service in Vietnam?
Unlike Sen. John McCain and former Vice President Al Gore, Bush refused during the 2000 campaign to release his military records to the public..."
Action Figures For Imbeciles
It's the G.W. Bush "aviator" doll, just in time to degrade every notion of heroism, ever
by Mark Morford
August 22, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle
"... And sure you can try to say "George W. Bush action figure" without choking on your vodka/Valium martini, but it is worth noting that it is, apparently, and tragically, not common knowledge that Shrub avoided almost all military service through his daddy's connections, skipped right by the Vietnam draft by enlisting in the National Guard and then went AWOL from that service for well over a year... "
Hero Sandwiches
Troops get death and pay cuts while Bush gobbles barbecue, rakes in dough
by Alan Bisbort
August 21, 2003, Hartford [CT] Advocate
"... To the ruling elite -- like the Crawford pig-nibblers -- these men and women in uniform are useful members of the unwashed masses. They served their purpose as of May 1, when Bush -- who went AWOL from military service during the Vietnam War -- dolled himself up with codpiece and flight helmet for his campaign photo-op aboard the aircraft carrier. "Mission accomplished," he trumpeted, and the media played along with the charade. Since then, at least 126 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and thousands have been wounded, physically and psychologically. "
Male cheerleaders and chicken hawks, by Joe Conason
Excerpt from "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth," posted on Salon.com, 8/19/03
"...Bush also wrote that his military service "gave me respect for the chain of command." Not enough respect, apparently, to report for duty as ordered, since his records show that he ignored two direct orders to do so -- and in fact was absent from duty for a year between May 1972 and May 1973.
By the time he applied to Harvard Business School in 1972, Bush claimed, "I was almost finished with my commitment in the Air National Guard, and was no longer flying because the F-102 jet I had trained in was being replaced by a different fighter." That too was false. According to an interview with his commanding officer that appeared in the Boston Globe, Bush's Guard unit continued to fly the F-102 until 1974, an assertion confirmed by Air Force records. "If he had come back to Houston, I would have kept him flying the 102 until he got out," said retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges.
In 2000 a few journalists asked the Bush campaign to account for his near-total absence from duty during the final two years of the six-year stint he agreed to serve. The Republican candidate and his spokespersons replied that he made up his missed days in an Alabama National Guard unit, but there is scant evidence to confirm that claim. Bush sought a permanent transfer to a "postal unit" in Alabama that didn't require weekend drills or active duty, which was approved by his Texas superiors. In May 1972, National Guard headquarters denied his request -- which would have amounted to a permanent vacation from duty. The following autumn, he was assigned instead to temporary "alternative" training at the 187th Squadron in Montgomery, Ala.
According to two former officers in that Alabama Guard unit, however, Bush never showed up. Retired Gen. William Turnipseed, the unit's former commander, said he was certain that Bush did not report to him, although the young reserve airman was specifically required to do so. The orders dated Sept. 15, 1972, were clear. "Lieutenant Bush should report to Lt. Col. William Turnipseed, DCO, to perform equivalent training."
Bush has insisted, usually through a spokesman, that he did report for duty in Alabama, although his campaign could offer no proof. In late 2000 a group of Alabama Vietnam veterans offered $3,500 to anyone who could verify Bush's claim that he performed service at a Montgomery, Ala., National Guard unit in 1972. No one ever claimed that reward. Nor could his campaign produce a single witness who confirmed that Bush had attended any Guard drills in Houston after he returned from Alabama in late 1972.
According to the Boston Globe, Bush's discharge papers list his service and duty station for each of his first four years in the Air National Guard. After May 1972, there was no record of training on those forms and "no mention of any service in Alabama." The supervising pilots at Ellington Air Force Base wrongly believed that Bush was serving in Alabama. In a report dated May 2, 1973, they explained that they were unable to rate his efficiency because "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report. A civilian occupation made it necessary for him to move to Montgomery, Alabama. He cleared this base on 15 May 1972 and has been performing equivalent training in a non-flying status with the 187 Tac Recon Gp, Dannelly ANG Base, Alabama."
As for Bush's curious failure to take his Air Force physical in July 1972, his only excuse is that because he was then in Alabama working on a Republican Senate campaign, he was unable to return to Houston for a checkup by his personal physician. That too was untrue. A pilot's physical, required to continue flying, can only be performed by a certified Air Force flight surgeon (as Bush must have known, since he had undergone at least three such exams). An investigation of Bush's military career published in June 2000 by the Times of London noted that the Air Force had instituted rigorous drug testing a few months before he failed to show up for the medical exam. "
President oozes with irony, by Mike Argento
York [PA] Daily Record, August 16, 2003
"... Forget for a moment that the war has dragged on and more than 120 young Americans have died in Iraq since he said it was all over. Forget for a moment that the Abraham Lincoln was kept at sea for an additional day so Dubya could have his photo-op. Forget for a moment that Dubya speaks highly of our men and women in uniform, but when it comes to supporting them by, say, paying them a living wage and giving them health and education and retirement benefits, he abandons them. Forget for a moment that the president wearing the uniform is an insult to the men and women who wear it for real while putting their lives on the line.
The most ironic thing here is Dubya, dressed up like a war hero, when he dodged service in Vietnam by having his daddy get him into the Air National Guard and even then, he didn’t even show up for duty for a year when he was supposed to be serving his country. "
AWOL offense brings jail time, by Todd Billiot
The Lafayette [LA] Daily Advertiser - August 9, 2003
"A 21-year-old Lafayette woman, a member of the Louisiana Army National Guard, was booked into the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center this week and ordered to serve six days in jail for going AWOL, or being absent without official leave from duty. ...
... Angelle M. Fedeli was found guilty this summer in a court marshal hearing of being AWOL and ordered to serve six days in jail, said Dusty Shenofsky, national guard spokeswoman. Fedeli missed her national guard duty in April, May and June of this year, Shenofsky said. ..."
The Baltimore Sun, 7/27/03
"When Bush made his "Top Gun" appearance aboard the Abraham Lincoln, critics complained that it was over the top, especially for a chap with such a poor attendance record in his safe experience years ago with the Texas Air National Guard."
GregPalast.com, 7/9/03
"But what the heck, Bush’s supporters respond that the man did at least he ‘serve his country’ in the Air Guard. Or did he? Questions have been raised over the years about whether the younger George, having nailed the cushy pilot seat, failed to report for duty. On camera, I spoke with Texas cattle rancher Bill Burkett, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the air guard. Seems that Burkett was in the office of the Guard’s Adjutant General when a call came in from then-Governor George W. Bush’s office. As is normal procedure, the call was put on the speaker box, but the request was not so normal. The Governor’s office was sending over an official biographer … and the Governor’s minions wanted to make sure the files did not contain not-so-heroic info."
Niagara Falls Reporter, 7/8/03
"The writer (I'll just call her Carol) says her "frustration level is at an all-time high." Her concern about the dangerous, interminable occupation in Iraq is deeply personal. Her son is with the 3rd Infantry Division over there, and she has no idea when he'll get home.
Carol calls Rumsfeld's office every day to complain about the situation, and in May she wrote President Bush and let him have it for suggesting the war was essentially finished.
"As I watched the footage of your landing on the U.S.S. Lincoln last week and listened to the speech about major combat being over, I found myself nauseated. While your political theatrics are being launched in hopes of getting the popularity polls up, my son is still in danger in Baghdad. Your feeble attempt at camaraderie with returning soldiers was patronizing, in my opinion."
Carol didn't miss the irony of Bush's flight suit fashion show. She reminded him of his year-plus absence from the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. In those days, George W. wasn't challenging Ho Chi Minh to "bring 'em on." He was hiding in some redneck bar in Alabama, working on the congressional campaigning of one of his daddy's pals.
Carol calls that absence from duty "desertion," and tells the president, "My son will come back a 20-year-old combat veteran. Do not even pretend to have any regard for what he and his comrades have been through -- the sights, the smells, the sounds they will have etched forever in their memories."
Fort Worth Weekly, 7/2/03
"As for soldiering, he was basically AWOL from the Air National Guard for a couple of years. Look it up. Copies of his military records are on the internet. George must have gotten tired of playing soldier -- until he got to land on the aircraft carrier, of course."
The New York Review of Books
... Democracy, more than any other political system, depends on a modicum of honesty. Ultimately, it is much at the mercy of a leader who has never been embarrassed by himself. What is to be said of a man who spent two years in the Air Force of the National Guard (as a way of not having to go to Vietnam) and proceeded—like many another spoiled and wealthy father's son—not to bother to show up for duty in his second year of service? Most of us have episodes in our youth that can cause us shame on reflection. It is a mark of maturation that we do not try to profit from our early lacks and vices but do our best to learn from them. Bush proceeded, however, to turn his declaration of the Iraqi campaign's end into a mighty fashion show. He chose—this overnight clone of Honest Abe—to arrive on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on an S-3B Viking jet that came in with a dramatic tail-hook landing. The carrier was easily within helicopter range of San Diego but G.W. would not have been able to show himself in flight regalia, and so would not have been able to demonstrate how well he wore the uniform he had not honored. Jack Kennedy, a war hero, was always in civvies while he was commander in chief. So was General Eisenhower. George W. Bush, who might, if he had been entirely on his own, have made a world-class male model (since he never takes an awkward photograph), proceeded to tote the flight helmet and sport the flight suit. There he was for the photo-op looking like one more great guy among the great guys. Let us hope that our democracy will survive these nonstop foulings of the nest.
Bush is a Coward 6/21/03 by Jack Balkwill, Vietnam Veteran
"I have been under fire for days at a time, with such fear beyond fear that it really requires a new word. Those who order wars never see the bleeding or hear the screams. I have seen rivers of blood and have given thanks for the insane roar of battle when it hid the screams of my comrades, to keep me from going entirely mad. But Bush can order a war casually, just before his golf game.
In a nightmare I faced Bush and said "You cowardly son of a bitch, I took your place in Vietnam." I could see in his glazed, alcoholic eyes the denial which kept him from understanding. His handlers convinced him that if he put on a flight jacket and flew to an aircraft carrier, he must be a hero (even if it cost $800,000 as it underscored the hypocrisy of his "fiscal conservative" claim, habitually unnoticed by corporate media as the national debt soars)."
Follow-up to "Bush is a Coward" - The American People Speak Out
"My thanks to you for saying things most find it ‘politically incorrect’ to say. I'm also a Vietnam veteran who's been in combat, and you've said the things that I've long felt. If only more Americans would read your article and face the truth. Keep up the good work."
Bottom Gun: Presidential Draft Dodger George W. Bush (Buzzflash Special Guest Commentary 6/5/03 by James
C. Moore, co-author of "Bush's
Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential")
"Nonetheless, Mr. Bush maintained his flight status until 1972, when he failed to show up for a required physical. His campaign initially said he did not return to Houston because his family physician was unavailable to conduct the physical. When it was made clear such exams are given by military doctors, the campaign then explained that Mr. Bush did not take the physical because he had "decided" he would no longer fly. This is a unique approach to military service when the enlistee gets to "decide" his future duties. The year Mr. Bush skipped his physical, 1972, was also the first year the Guard began to institute random drug testing procedures.
Mr. Bush was grounded, his flight status revoked, and a punishment order was signed posting him to civilian duty in Denver. No evidence has ever been presented that he showed up there, either."
Alan Bisbort, the Hartford Advocate, May 29, 2003: Lying, Like Gambling, is a Virtue -
The Republican Party 2004 Playbook
"Bush's aircraft carrier Halloween stunt has only drawn attention to his going AWOL from his own military commitment and, with each viewing of that footage, more are noticing the cartoonish similarity to Michael Dukakis' similar stunt in 1988 (which effectively lost him the election to Poppy Bush), that the idea of a military deserter using the deaths of 3,000 Americans as a backdrop for his party's nominating convention in New York City next September will likely spark the biggest protests of his reign..."
The Charlotte Observer, May 15, 2003: Bush's Jaunt
"[Critics] don't acknowledge that the president could have had a reason for his choice of transportation. Maybe he was logging some flying time to make up for what he acknowledges was "spotty attendance" when he was in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam war."
Clarence Page, The Chicago Tribune (via the Salt Lake Tribune, May 14 2003): No Reason for Entertainers to Stay Out of Politics, and Vice-Versa
"As it happened, Bush carried off his show so well that almost all the TV news coverage referred to him as a 'former fighter pilot' in the Texas Air National Guard without bringing up how there's no record of his reporting for duty for an entire year at the end of his hitch. Bush lost his flying privileges in 1972 after failing to show up for a routine physical. Bill Clinton wishes his efforts to dodge the draft had received such soft treatment."
Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle 5/12/03: We like to look as if we support our troops
"The facts as I understand them: An aircraft carrier that had been away from port for 10 months was slowed down for more than 24 hours so that the president could land in a jet fighter on its deck. We do support our troops, but we don't think they should get home just yet. Cheering soldiers: always a useful background for a speech.
No one, least of all the fawning media, mentioned that in the '70s the First Pilot failed to fulfill the last year (at least) of his cushy assignments in National Guard units in Alabama and Texas, despite being ordered to do so. He subsequently lied about his service. He was never disciplined for this dereliction of duty."
The Chicago Sun-Times, Sunday, May 11, 2003: Dwindling war coverage makes way for political theater
"Saddam Hussein and his sons are still unaccounted for, but like the absent weapons of mass destructions, may yet turn up. Bush's history as a pilot was not much mentioned, given his abandonment of his National Guard duties during his last year of service. But the president's tailhooking did bring to mind other memories of military special treatment, the ''angles and dangles'' that the Navy supplied for visiting dignitaries, corporate bigwigs and others who got the royal treatment aboard submarines. "
The Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday, May 10, 2003:
"You might think that people would remember serving with the man who later became president, but nobody has been found in Alabama who does."
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek Web Exclusive May 9, 2003: Off Message Again
"...between May 1972 and October 1974 he was absent from duty with the Air National Guard..."
Orcinus, May 8 2003: Flyboy Bush
"Why did Mr. Bush abandon his commitment to his country during wartime?"
Gene Lyons, Weblog Wednesday, May 07, 2003:
"This is a dead giveaway. As somebody roughly Bush's age with no eminent connections, I could easily prove my whereabouts, job or institutional affiliations at any time since entering kindergarten. The conclusion is inescapable: Bush took a powder."
Bill Gallagher, Niagara Falls Reporter May 6 2003: Jet-Boy Bush Went Missing When It Mattered, Media Paid No Mind
"The American taxpayers spent $1 million to train George W. Bush to fly planes and, by all accounts, he was a pretty good pilot when he chose to fly. He went to weekend meetings at the Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ellington Field in Houston from June, 1970 until April, 1972.
Then Bush suddenly and inexplicably stopped flying and the unsolved mystery began."
Joe Conason's Journal, Salon.Com 5/3/2003:
"Bush's "Top Gun" get-up wasn't just tacky, it was a reminder of one of the most stunning lies ever committed to print by a presidential candidate."
Shields and Brooks, Online News Hour 5/2/03:
"The most recurring criticism I heard of the president was the uniform, that you recall during the 2000 campaign, questions he was missing from the meetings in Alabama when he went to work on a political campaign there, didn't show up for reserve meetings. There was a question just exactly what his commitment was to the Texas Air National Guard, especially in the very important Battle of Amarillo."
Here in Reality: Military Career of our Commander in Chief
Bush's DWI revelation at the end of the 2000 Presidential campaign may have been leaked to cover a much bigger scandal.
Greg Palast's new video, "Bush family fortunes," from the BBC