Dean Esmay, a self-professed conservative liberal, managed to get a phone interview with Van Odell, one of Kerry’s crewmates in Vietnam. I think this is absolutely an essential read for those wondering why the Swift Boat Vets have come after Kerry hard.
Maybe you really don’t care.
Maybe you should.
Joseph Farah believes that if Kerry is elected, there will be a draft. Of course, that’s not how the Democrats are playing it. They have introduced bills in Congress to reinstitute a draft, yet accuse Bush of planning to do it regardless.
Farah’s thesis is that the folks in the military will depart in droves, as they did when Clinton took over. The difference is that in 1992, the military was in a drawn-down cycle as part of the “Peace Dividend” that came with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
We don’t have that luxury right now, unless President Kerry determines we don’t need to prosecute the current war.
Maybe he has already decided that.
I would say that this deserves at least as much attention as the fake ANG documents and Draft email:
The report in question described a mission of five swift boats ambushed by a mine explosion that seriously damaged one boat while the swift boats received heavy fire from both banks. The fire continued for three miles, the report said. Roy Hoffman, the admiral who commanded the swift boats in Vietnam, finds that detail alone absurd. Hoffman, a member of the anti-Kerry swift boat veterans group, says: “There was never an incident under my command in all of Vietnam where my boats were engaged by continuous fire from both banks of a half mile in length, much less three.”
Somehow I doubt Dan Rather, or anyone else in television news will give it a second glance. A commenter once mentioned “It’s in the official reports,” and I asked who wrote them.
I guess we now know.
I remember the look very well. It is one you see in the eyes of young men (and women) with a job to do, and the confidence they have in themselves.
You can tell without asking what these guys think. They look you in the eye. And if you can stand to look back you’ll see into the eyes of the undefeated. There is no quit here, no early out, no cut and run. These are young men with an ugly job, America’s finest sent to do our worst and best, and they make me feel old and inspired all at the same time.
Greyhawk reports from his new home in Iraq.
A friend at work has a son who is an SF team leader operating in Afghanistan. Yesterday, two of his men were killed by an RPG. The son and another soldier were wounded. They killed many of the “insurgents.” The efforts of Pakistan to attack remaining al Queda and Taliban are driving them back across the border into Afghanistan where our forces are waiting.
The son is coming home, but not because he wants to leave after being wounded. He really wants to stay and finish the job at hand. But he feels it is far more important for him to accompany his comrades and be there for their families.
God bless them.
I have seen many claims, and talked to people who believe, that Dubya was allowed to join the Texas Air National Guard ahead of 150 others on a waiting list. So, I decided to do a little research. I came up empty on the internet. Every citation of this, such as one from CBS News (quite a reliable source, I’d say) says something similar:
Questions about the president’s National Guard service have lingered for years. Some critics question how Mr. Bush got into the Guard when there were waiting lists of young men hoping to join it to escape the draft and possible service in Vietnam.
Another post at DU:
It has been reported that Bush jumped to the top of a list of over 500 applicants for the position…
And yet another:
Although he only scored in the 25th percentile on his pilot aptitude test Bush was somehow able to skip this entire waiting list and get an immediate appointment to the Texas Air National Guard.
But I have yet to see anything anywhere which corroborates these claims.
Has anyone seen anything at all that shows this to be true, or are we all listening to something which has been repeated often enough to sound believable? Can someone, somewhere, provide a copy of said list, or even some reliable information that such a list actually existed?
Dan Rather would know, wouldn’t he?
***UPDATE***
I found this which may answer the question. Also, the Washington Post has more integrity than Dan Rather, even if they word things a little oddly:
Retired Col. Rufus G. Martin, then personnel officer in charge of the 147th Fighter Group, said the unit was short of its authorized strength, but still had a long waiting list, because of the difficulty getting slots in basic training for recruits at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Martin said four openings for pilots were available in the 147th in 1968, and that Bush got the last one.
So, it seems Dubya didn’t jump past all those other folks waiting for a slot after all.
Down under, Kev has been watching closely as the low-lifes of Iraq continue to play the terror game. But they might just have crossed a line they’ll regret as a “team of Special Air Service reconnaissance specialists has hit the ground in Iraq…. equipped with sophisticated eavesdropping devices.”
As Kev points out,
Sophisticated eavesdropping devices is not all they will be equiped with.
And Kev is pretty serious about all this with elections due shortly in Australia as well as the US. He has reverted to his war-face photo.
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