Kerry Criticizes Bush Over Guard Service

[CatWoman]

"The issue here is, as I have heard it raised, is was he present and active in Alabama at the time he was supposed to be," said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran. "I don't have the answer to that question and just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question."

In an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Bush said he reported for duty and that his critics were wrong.

"I served in the National Guard. I flew F-102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge," Bush said. "I've heard this — I've heard this ever since I started running for office. I put in my time, proudly so."

Kerry, who watched Bush's interview with Warner at the governor's mansion, also took issue with Bush for saying that deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had the ability to make deadly weapons.

"This is a far cry from what the president and his administration told the people in 2002," he said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20040208/ap_on_el_pr/democrats

[genius]

1. Good for Kerry

This is one of the benefits of having Kerry as the frontrunner.

[demconfive]

2. bush keeps saying he put his time in....

... but than he admits he left early to go to Harvard. Will somebody in the press please put two and two together? And will the Democrats please compare the fact that while bush got to leave early, our men and women in Iraq have to stay past their discharge dates because of the bungling of the bush administration.

[lebkuchen]

7. Not only stop-lossed, but had R & R cancelled

8 Feb 04

Canceled R&R

This is in reference to the article “Army denies R&R canceled during rotation” (Jan. 23). Great article. Unfortunately, it was wrong. Coalition Joint Task Force-7 has indeed canceled Operation Iraqi Freedom’s Rest and Recuperation leave for February and March. I’m sure Stars and Stripes will receive letters pointing out that, technically, the R&R leave program has only been “temporarily suspended.” Semantics aside, it’s been canceled for my 125 troops.

The article quoted Gary Jones, a spokesman for Army Forces Central Command in Atlanta, as saying, “It’ll be severely cut back, but only because there will be fewer troops eligible. We’ve got a lot of folks there. … But if three soldiers are there and eligible, those three will be flown out on R&R.” Well, in my company I have 125 troops who are eligible for leave, and February and March are our last two months of eligibility. So should I be contacting Jones to get those leave slots, or will he be contacting me?

My troops have done everything that the Army and I have asked of them. They’ve put up with shortages. We’ve been in country for eight months and we still don’t have our third and fourth sets of desert camouflage uniforms. They’ve put up with the fact that they were on stop loss while their active-duty counterparts were allowed to ETS and PCS. They’ve seen units around them achieve 100 percent participation in the R&R leave program, and all really without too much complaint. But now they’re being told that the much-sensationalized R&R leave program has, for them, been canceled.

By the time our unit redeploys, we’ll have been mobilized and away from our families for 16 months. Canceling leave for 125 of my troops may seem like a small thing to those who made the decision. But I can assure them that it isn’t, and 16 months from now it will continue to be no small matter to my troops, their families, and me.

Capt. Matthew R. Hook
Camp Victory, Kuwait

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=20345#pacific

[Terwilliger]

3. OK Clark supporters...Kerry is more willing to call Bush out

why is that?

[NNN0LHI]

5. Clark has done just fine. I thought Dean made some damn good points...

...on this issue this morning about it too.

Don

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. What is going on is that Clark

Kerry and Dean (with Jennings raising the issue, and Moore throwign the sh*t into the osciclainting rotating device) have brought this front and center

This is the kind of a game were senior officers and junior officers are playign the game the way it is played INSIDE the Pentagon... it is clear to those with any kind of cotnact with the armed forces...and they have ALL forced the issue to the forefront.

now the miltiary is learning (those who had not) that the CiC did not fulfill his obligations... this will make them turn about face and quietly vote AGAINST him

The boy has given us so many issues in a silver platter that they seem to be falling from the tree.

[DemoTex]

4. Dammit, Kerry! That is only part of the issue. One-third of the issue.

"The issue here is, as I have heard it raised, is was he present and active in Alabama at the time he was supposed to be," said Kerry ...

Issue 1: Why did Bu$h fail to take a military flight physical, a failure which resulted in his suspension from the flying duty which he said (today on MTP) that he loved?

Issue 2: Was Bu$h present and active in the Alabama ANG unit at the time he was supposed to be?

Issue 3: Did Bu$h return to duty with his TANG unit at Ellington AFB at any time to make up missed drills?

[NNN0LHI]

6. No rush, Mac. Long time until November. Little bit at a time...

...to give people something to think about it before the election. :-)

Don

[Johnyawl]

14. That's right, patience, patience...

First Clark, then Kerry, then Dean, being sorta nice, not too snarky, but staying on the issue, and people like Moore & Cleland hammering the issue loudly every time it starts to die. We'll bleed him to death with small cuts. All the way to november.

[NNN0LHI]

15. You got it Johny. All the way to November and back to Waco for Chimpy n/t

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. Kerry has no cred on this issue.

We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways.

February 27, 1992 (Congressional Record p.S2479)

[NNN0LHI]

9. I don't see anything about Bush being AWOL in that quote. Do you? n/t

[CatWoman]

12. huh?

:shrug:

[BeatleBoot]

11. Bring It On!!

Go, John, go!

[metisnation]

13. GW COULDN'T

shine John Kerrys boots.