Originally posted by BP:

imo it's pretty hard to overlook the priviledged people who used their connections to go into a reserve role in order to avoid being drafted and sent to vietnam. on the same note there are many who were valiant in their service as reservists and i do not belittle their commitment one bit. to me there is some distinction between those who served because they felt compelled to and those who did it to avoid being sent to battle.




What do you KNOW of Bush's avoiding being sent to battle vs compelled to serve? I certainly do not know....anymore than I know if Kerry was really wounded of cut himself on a piece of paper for an early trip home....

However, a privileged person to the degree Bush was could have fully AVOIDED military service period. That he served at ALL in the guard was voluntary. His father was a fighter pilot, who was shot down in combat...this is not the kind of person who would want his son to run to Canada or cheat the draft.

Bush was trained as an F-104 fighter pilot, noted to be one of the hardest jets to fly..I knew a couple F 104 guys from my air contoller days. This is dangerous work, just the training...NOT for gutless punks looking for an "easy" way out. Bush's CO even commented that Bush volunteered for Nam flight duty but had not yet accrued the required number of flight hours in type aircraft. To suggest that Bush did not adequetly serve his country militarily is just flat wrong.

Kerry spent 4 months in Vietnam and should be commended for this. However, Kerry stirred the pot again with a pretty much 4 day long commercial (the DNC convention) complete with a friggin' Steven Spielberg movie that spent 10X more time on his 4 weeks in Vietnam that 20 years in the senate... He has brought this attack by other swift boat vets who knew him and what really happened upon himself. Kerry marketed himself as a combat experienced hero..let the chips fall where they may..

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