Wednesday, September 08, 2004
If facts still mattered... `
... then accounts like these might make a difference regarding GWBush's Texas Air Nat'l Guard service:
Gerald Lechliter, a lifelong registered Independent and "retired (1999) Army colonel with active Marine enlisted service (1967-69)" who was there at Dannelly in Alabama where Bush was supposed to be in 1972, wrote 34 pages of actual research and analysis concluding W's obligations were not fufilled.
Nick Kristof's column at NYTimes, saying:
~ Leonard Walls, a retired Air Force colonel who was then a full-time pilot instructor at the base. "I was there pretty much every day," he said, adding: "I never saw him, and I was there continually from July 1972 to July 1974." Mr. Walls, who describes himself as nonpolitical, added, "If he had been there more than once, I would have seen him."
But you already knew Bush shortchanged his Guard Unit (and by extension, his country) anyway. Is it hard to feel mad about after so much repetition and denial? Perhaps you find yourself stuck thinking "it was so long ago, so far away, so obvious and banal a failure, too coked-up to fly... ahhh, then again, weren't we all?" Fine you cynical bastard. But before you clutch your babies and wave your "war president" flag, and after you read the 34 pages linked above, consider Kristof's other revelation:
"Mr. Bush - a U.N. ambassador's son who had dated Tricia Nixon - would have been particularly memorable."
That's right. Set the scene. You are at a military airbase in 1972, during the late phases of the Vietnam War. In May, Operation Linebacker (I) begins heavy bombing and mine-laying, 125,000 tons in 40,000 sorties: the "burning naked village girl" picture is published. In June, five of the "President's Men" are caught bugging the DNC's Watergate offices! In July, Jane Fonda broadcasts on Radio Hanoi.
So, at this airbase, a guy shows up who actually dated Richard M. Nixon's daughter. You know, the gal who was just on the cover of Life Magazine in her wedding dress... and the same Nixon who is nevertheless on his way to the biggest Presidential election landslide ever. Get the picture?
Gerald Lechliter, a lifelong registered Independent and "retired (1999) Army colonel with active Marine enlisted service (1967-69)" who was there at Dannelly in Alabama where Bush was supposed to be in 1972, wrote 34 pages of actual research and analysis concluding W's obligations were not fufilled.
Nick Kristof's column at NYTimes, saying:
~ Leonard Walls, a retired Air Force colonel who was then a full-time pilot instructor at the base. "I was there pretty much every day," he said, adding: "I never saw him, and I was there continually from July 1972 to July 1974." Mr. Walls, who describes himself as nonpolitical, added, "If he had been there more than once, I would have seen him."
But you already knew Bush shortchanged his Guard Unit (and by extension, his country) anyway. Is it hard to feel mad about after so much repetition and denial? Perhaps you find yourself stuck thinking "it was so long ago, so far away, so obvious and banal a failure, too coked-up to fly... ahhh, then again, weren't we all?" Fine you cynical bastard. But before you clutch your babies and wave your "war president" flag, and after you read the 34 pages linked above, consider Kristof's other revelation:
"Mr. Bush - a U.N. ambassador's son who had dated Tricia Nixon - would have been particularly memorable."
That's right. Set the scene. You are at a military airbase in 1972, during the late phases of the Vietnam War. In May, Operation Linebacker (I) begins heavy bombing and mine-laying, 125,000 tons in 40,000 sorties: the "burning naked village girl" picture is published. In June, five of the "President's Men" are caught bugging the DNC's Watergate offices! In July, Jane Fonda broadcasts on Radio Hanoi.
So, at this airbase, a guy shows up who actually dated Richard M. Nixon's daughter. You know, the gal who was just on the cover of Life Magazine in her wedding dress... and the same Nixon who is nevertheless on his way to the biggest Presidential election landslide ever. Get the picture?
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