Bush AWOL

I’ve heard you guys talk about this, but can someone post a link?

Well, it was reported by US News on 9/20 that Bush didn’t fulfill his signed military obligations: “Because Bush signed a six-year ‘military service obligation,’ he was required to attend at least 44 inactive-duty training drills each fiscal year beginning July 1. But Bush’s own records show that he fell short of that requirement, attending only 36 drills in the 1972-73 period, and only 12 in the 1973-74 period. The White House has said that Bush’s service should be calculated using 12-month periods beginning on his induction date in May 1968. Using this time frame, however, Bush still fails the Air Force obligation standard.” (Another article on this subject is at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/roane040908.htm)

There are gaps in Bush’s guard duty, occurring when he moved to Alabama in 1972. At the time, he missed a required physical examination, and was thus “grounded,” meaning that he was no longer allowed to fly planes, as a result. In Alabama, he apparently failed to report for duty for long periods of time, until he returned to Texas in mid-1973. This matter has been reported by various sources:

  1. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/08/bush_fell_short_on_duty_at_guard/
  2. http://web.archive.org/web/20000619121358/http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/One_year_gap_in_Bush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml
  3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7372-2004Feb2?language=printer
  4. http://apnews.myway.com//article/20040905/D84TK0SG0.html

Here are some of Bush’s military records: http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/document.htm
Basically, when the Air Force was told that no information about Bush was available on his Texas base (since he went to Alabama), they sent a request for more information. In late 1973, however, no information about Bush was forthcoming, “for administrative reasons.”

http://www.factcheck.org/article131.html

I’m not sure what is true, but this article does seem to be quite convincing and has it’s sources in line.

points at sig

Another thing about the whole Bush AWOL thing that nobody seems to care about is that it shouldn’t have any relevance on the election for the same reason that war protesting by Kerry shouldn’t have any relevance on the election (likewise, when Schwarzenegger was running for California governor, people kept bringing up interviews of his in the early 70s and using that as evidence that he was unfit for office). Both happened over 30 years ago and don’t bear any real relevance today. But then again politics is all about bringing up shit from the extremely distant past and trying to use that as evidence as to why the person is unfit for the position they’re running for. Too bad the public usually falls for it. If you dig down deep enough, everybody has some skeletons in the closet. The public needs to evaluate the time-frame these events happened and what relevance it has to their abilities in office (if any).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you want to use something against Bush, don’t look at crap like that, use the Iraq war debacle and his track record as president. There’s plenty of things to dislike about him there.

On a different note, the Bush/AWOL situation (and people bitching about Kerry being a war protester) reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where Lisa played hockey…

<i>Lisa: I HAVE to join the team or I’ll get an F that will haunt me for the rest of my life.
[in the future, Lisa is being sworn in]
Inauguration Officer: I now pronounce you President of these United –
Reporter: Stop the inauguration! I just discovered our President Elect got an F in second grade gym class!
[crows gasps; Lisa is handcuffed]
Inauguration: In that case I sentence you to a lifetime of horror on Monster Island. [to Lisa] Don’t worry, it’s just a name.
[Lisa and others are chased by fire-breathing monsters]
Lisa: He said it was just a name!
Man: What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula.</i>

I think it’s valid to take something like this into account for a candidate whose rhetoric consists in a great part of preaching about consistency and moral rigidity.

If there’s one thing I know about people in their early 20s is that they’re all idiots. 30 years from now, we’ll all be very different, and so will our ethics.

Yeah…by then we’ll all be idiotic, but won’t remember it due to senility. :smiley:

People don’t become senile at 50 unless they’re very unlucky or they’re from Central Africa, Trill. :stuck_out_tongue:

I know, I’m just kidding :stuck_out_tongue: