Indeedy.
The more I muse on W's dodging and ducking about his military record, the madder I get. Do not forget, enlisting in the National Guard back in the late 60's and early 70's was a common form of DRAFT DODGING. I went into the draft lottery, and was lucky to come up with a sky-high 278. I knew plenty of folk who didn't want to be drafted. Some simply didn't want to get shot in a jungle. No one did, of course, but some of us tried our damnedest to take on the government and make sure that no more Americans would die there. The draft lottery was put in effect because so many rich white kids like George W. Bush could easily dodge serving in the military, whether the deferment was for school, marriage, divinity school, physical problems, National Guard service, whatever. It became acutely embarassing to the pro-war politicians that the Vietnam War was being fought by a largely poor and disproportionately black Armed Forces. The lottery was an attempt to put an end to the type of shenanigans that hundreds of thousands or even millions of young men to avoid service, and make it a more democratic form of conscription.
So don't give me that "honorable service" crap.
The friend of Daddy Bush who made the call to put W. at the top of the line was doing the whole Bush family, the whole PRO-WAR Bush family, a big favor. They were aiding and abetting a draft dodge. They were making sure some other poor bastard, probably an undereducated black kid, got sent to the jungles. The next question that rankles my butt, but good, is the idea that The President of The United States, he who was allowed to NEGOTIATE his way out of his service just so he could go to business school, has extended the tours of duty of so many of the young men and women who are now in the service. Who are now being shot and blown up and killed and maimed. With no option to ask out.
"Hey Sarge! I got accepted to college - can I go home now?"
6:59:57 AM 
|
|
