Boston Globe: Bush fell short on duty at Guard
The great under-reported story of Bush's career - how the "wartime president" whose allies question his decorated opponent's valor, didn't even manage to fulfill his plush assignment with a stateside guard unit. The Globe, which originally broke the woefully overlooked flap, has given the latest documents to military experts to examine. Their conclusions? Despite Bush's assertions that he served honorably and met all his obligations to the Texas Air National Guard...
How dare a president who dodged his own military obligations and then lied about it question John Kerry's military record? How dare he send over a thousand American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq, when he himself was not only willing to take no risks, but couldn't even be troubled to show up for a physical examination? And, perhaps most importantly, why does America seem to be willing to give Bush a pass on this one? George W. Bush has been given free passes all his life, because of being a child of privilege and power. The fact that the American people have been conned into giving him one on this issue is an outrage.
'He broke his contract with the United States government -- without any adverse consequences. And the Texas Air National Guard was complicit in allowing this to happen,' [retired Army General] Lechliter said in an interview yesterday. 'He was a pilot. It cost the government a million dollars to train him to fly. So he should have been held to an even higher standard.'
Even retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd Jr., a former Texas Air National Guard personnel chief who vouched for Bush at the White House's request in February, agreed that Bush walked away from his obligation to join a reserve unit in the Boston area when he moved to Cambridge in September 1973. By not joining a unit in Massachusetts, Lloyd said in an interview last month, Bush 'took a chance that he could be called up for active duty. But the war was winding down, and he probably knew that the Air Force was not enforcing the penalty.'
How dare a president who dodged his own military obligations and then lied about it question John Kerry's military record? How dare he send over a thousand American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq, when he himself was not only willing to take no risks, but couldn't even be troubled to show up for a physical examination? And, perhaps most importantly, why does America seem to be willing to give Bush a pass on this one? George W. Bush has been given free passes all his life, because of being a child of privilege and power. The fact that the American people have been conned into giving him one on this issue is an outrage.
posted by Bob at
11:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home