Bush Opposed To Military Service

In a news conference on 11 October 2001, President George W. Bush said "we learned some very important lessons in Vietnam." All members of the U.S. armed forces should take a moment and familiarize themselves with the important lessons that George Bush learned during the Vietnam War. Since war in Iraq is inevitable, let?s do everything we can to encourage the men and women of the U.S. armed services to follow the example of their Commander-in-Chief when called upon to go into battle.

In May 1968, American soldiers were dying in combat in Southeast Asia at a rate of about 350 per week. George W. Bush was twelve days away from losing his student draft deferment (meaning that he?d be eligible for draft into the Vietnam War) when he abruptly decided that he should join the 147th Fighter Group of the Texas Air National Guard. In spite of the very long waiting list and having only scored the lowest acceptable grade on the pilot aptitude qualification test, this son of a Houston-based congressman managed to enlist on the same day that he applied, and a special ceremony was staged so he could be photographed swearing in for duty (a second special photo opportunity was arranged when Bush was commissioned a second lieutenant as Bush?s father the congressman [a supporter of the Vietnam War] stood proudly in the background). According to Shrub?s former commanding officer, Bush ?said he wanted to fly just like his daddy.? Other members of the Texas Air National Guard at the time included the aide to the speaker of the Texas House and at least seven members of the Dallas Cowboys professional football team; Bush?s 147th Fighter Group was known as the "Champagne Unit" because it also included the sons of future Senator Lloyd Bentsen and Texas Governor John Connally.

Immediately following his promotion to second lieutenant, Bush was put on inactive duty status and spent more than two months in Florida working for Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Edward J. Gurney. When he wasn?t handing out Gurney press releases and making sure that the reporters didn?t oversleep, Bush returned to Houston for weekend Guard duty. In early 1970, Bush rented a one-bedroom apartment at the exclusive Chateaux Dijon complex in Houston, a building with six swimming pools where Bush played all-day water volleyball games and dated many of the single women who lived there.

In 1973, as Bush?s daddy was being considered for a new job as chairman of Nixon?s Republican National Committee, Dubya secured an early release from the National Guard to start at Harvard Business School, eight months short of his full six-year hitch, and transferred to a reserve unit in Boston for the rest of his time. ?One of my first recollections of him,? says classmate Marty Kahn, ?was sitting in class and hearing the unmistakable sound of someone spitting tobacco. I turned around and there was George sitting in the back of the room in his [National Guard] bomber jacket spitting in a cup.? Bush?s acceptance into Harvard Business School surprised some, since he had graduated from Yale a full five years before.

Urge enlisted men and women to do like Bush did: avoid combat at all costs, hang out, sleep late, and lead an active social life; when called upon to fight a war for your great nation, see if you can to pull political strings in order to avoid the infantry and chose instead to spend two years in flight training in San Antonio and another four years in part-time service in your home state. If you lack the ruling-class connections, than you should be obliged to do whatever you can to follow the lead of your Commander-in-Chief: cheat, lie, malinger, and go AWOL. Desert while you can; killing and dying for ruling-class petrocrats is for chumps.