Here's MY bottom line on shrub's NG service & AWOL

[stopbush]

First, disclosure time: I graduated high school in '72 and was entered in the draft lottery which, I believe, ended in '73. I lucked out and pulled a low number. Still, I had to sweat bullets like everyone else who went through the lottery.

So, here's my perspective.

Back in the day, we all understood that military service of any type looked good on your resume, especially if you had political aspirations. But nobody wanted to go to Nam, and I can tell you that our senior year at school was one big long feast of gallows humor that revolved around the war. Everyone looked at the National Guard as the rich boy's way out of the draft. And, believe me, it wasn't just Senators and high-ranking politicos who made the call that kept their sons out of harm's way as NG weekend warriors, it was politicians across the spectrum, all the way down to the local dog catcher (OK, maybe not the dog catcher). Nam was for those with no connections and a questionable future, not for the entitled scions of America's upper crust.

But there was a price to be paid, and these luck duckies knew that price: you were spared a trip abroad to the jungle resort, but you fulfilled your obligation to the Guard. That was the trade off. No questions asked. End of story. If you were a fuck-up at school, that ended. If you were heavily into drugs or booze, you watched your Ps & Qs. And finally, you didn't rub it in the noses of the less-fortunate by acting like a fucking asshole about it. Those guys knew - because some of them told me so - that you walked a straight and narrow line no matter WHAT, because if you screwed up this particular *gift,* you risked being thrown back into the draft lottery cesspool with all the rest of us commoners. Screwing up your NG "out" was akin to getting a Porsche as a graduation gift...and then totaling the sucker on prom night.

So now, we come to George Dubya.

Forget the "did he or didn't he" serve a year. Were it *anyone* else, the mere "appearance" of *A* fuck-up - not to mention numerous fuck-ups - would have meant being summarily decommissioned, followed by a quick trip to the local draft board. And yet, here we have Georgie, with his failure to take a physical and a drug test, his being grounded, his not reporting, and on and on. At a time when most guardsmen tried to stay squeaky clean, Georgie was somewhere in between. So how, exactly, did he earn that honorable discharge?

I don't hang the whole "George was privileged" thing on that missing year. I hang the whole thing on...the whole thing, ie: the sum total of his crappy record of SERVICE - or lack thereof - while in the guard.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

[mhr]

1. Damn Fine Story It Is Too, Thanks For Sharing

eom

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Agreed....thank you for sharing!

This is the stance Kerry needs to take, that it is indicative of his half ass performance.

[NNN0LHI]

3. But, but, the nice lady on CNN said he made up that missed year later on

I wonder if there are any Guardsman in Iraq who would like to take a year off right now and make it up at some later time at their own convenience?

Don

[mb7588a]

4. Better to sweat a bullet than to have taken one,

in retrospect.

Those who could have gotten out EASILY, but voluneered, like Kerry, deserve the utmost respect for their service. It is a legitimate issue, and before I die (hopefully before I vote), I will know what George W. Bush was REALLY up to for that year.