Bush on being AWOL

[Taeger]

I think a good way to deconstruct this mess is dividing the speech into segments and posting them for comments.

Here goes: Bush on being AWOL


Russert: And we are back in the Oval Office talking to the President of the United States.

Mr. President, this campaign is fully engaged. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terence McAuliffe, said this last week: "I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard. He didn't show up when he should have showed up."

President Bush: Yeah.

Russert: How do you respond?

President Bush: Political season is here. I was I served in the National Guard. I flew F 102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge. I've heard this I've heard this ever since I started running for office. I I put in my time, proudly so.

I would be careful to not denigrate the Guard. It's fine to go after me, which I expect the other side will do. I wouldn't denigrate service to the Guard, though, and the reason I wouldn't, is because there are a lot of really fine people who served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq.

Russert: The Boston Globe and the Associated Press have gone through some of their records and said there’s no evidence that you reported to duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972.

President Bush: Yeah, they re they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged. In other words, you don't just say "I did something" without there being verification. Military doesn't work that way. I got an honorable discharge, and I did show up in Alabama.

Russert: You did were allowed to leave eight months before your term expired. Was there a reason?

President Bush: Right. Well, I was going to Harvard Business School and worked it out with the military.

Russert: When allegations were made about John McCain or Wesley Clark on their military records, they opened up their entire files. Would you agree to do that?

President Bush: Yeah. Listen, these files I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for governor. And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well. Probably you were. And absolutely. I mean, I

Russert: But would you allow pay stubs, tax records, anything to show that you were serving during that period?


President Bush: Yeah. If we still have them, but I you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records.


And I'm just telling you, I did my duty, and it's politics, you know, to kind of ascribe all kinds of motives to me. But I have been through it before. I'm used to it. What I don't like is when people say serving in the Guard is is may not be a true service.


Russert: Would you authorize the release of everything to settle this?

President Bush: Yes, absolutely.

We did so in 2000, by the way.


Russert: Were you favor of the war in Vietnam?

President Bush: I supported my government. I did. And would have gone had my unit been called up, by the way.

Russert: But you didn't volunteer or enlist to go.

President Bush: No, I didn't. You're right. I served. I flew fighters and enjoyed it, and we provided a service to our country. In those days we had what was called "Air Defense Command," and it was part of the air defense command system.


The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me as I look back was it was a political war. We had politicians making military decisions, and it is lessons that any president must learn, and that is to the set the goal and the objective and allow the military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective. And those are essential lessons to be learned from the Vietnam War.



Please feel free to snip and comment. English teacher, feel free to correct the Presisent's grammar. Just thank goodness he didn't have to spell as well.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

[loudnclear]

1. I guess politicians didn't make the decision to invade Iraq?

I know it was those darn generals!

[democracy eh]

2. man oh man

what a babbling, illiterate chimp

glad he had fun flying planes

[Panda1]

3. In other words....

....there ARE no records. Sure, look for them. They don't exist because people have been looking for them since 1994....it's been fixed already. Go ahead. Look. It's only politics anyway. He's "used" to it. He can afford to be smug because he knows it was already taken care of.

He's lying....his face showed he was lying. And this is the interview that was "allowed" on the air post-edit.

And besides, to cast aspersions on HIS lack of service denigrates those who actually DID serve and ARE serving in Iraq now. How unpatriotic to ask questions of that nature.

[spanone]

4. I guess the Vietnam dig means he considers himself an Army guy

[9215]

5. This lunatic is trying to make it

look like those people seeking records of his military service are attacking the Air National Guard!!


".....you don't just say "I did something" without there being verification......"

Exactly Mr. Fascisti, exactly. You cannot claim you weren't AWOL without verifying you were on duty.

Russert should have gotten into why Bush missed his physical but that would be too impolite. :eyes:


Bush is a one sick SOB. What he is as a person is starting to show through. This process will continue as Iraq degenerates into the miserable failure it is.

Maybe Bush will be declared unfit for trial by reason of insanity.

[Mattforclark]

6. Evidence and discharge

"There may be no evidence"

OK, I see.

"but I did report"

Alright...

"otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged."

If that is the case, then wouldn't being honorably discharged be evidence? And if this is the case, then why did you agree that there may be no evidence?

[belle]

10. See below. Classic guilty talk.

"I didn't do nothing! You can't prove it!"

Lesson #1 from every damn detective novel or movie that's come down the pike: the guy who starts talking about "proof" (or "evidence") in this case when defending himself is G-U-I-L-T-Y.

[buycitgo]

7. quote from Bush on what he learned during Nam

"I learned some good lessons from Vietnam. First, there must be a clear mission. Secondly, the politics ought to stay out of fighting a war. There was too much politics during the Vietnam War."
Associated Press, March 2002

do the dems EVER look on the internet for stuff?

[buycitgo]

"too much politics?"

as opposed to the utterly pristine environment in which the Iraq invasion was cooked up.

right?

[buycitgo]

8. my computer is screwed

keeps doubling up

buck does NOT stop at my keyboard

not MY fault

I blame faulty intel (chip?)

[belle]

9. You know what I love?

How his every remark is all about "proof"--he didn't use the word here, but he might as well have. "They're looking for those files--I bet you were too, but you can't catch me, nyah, nyah, I'm the Gingerbread Man." Defensive and *lame.* starting to remind me of Patrick Bateman being interrogated in "American Psycho."

--"evidence," he said "there may be no evidence, but..." Okay, I watched enough Columbo in my time; everyone and their dog knows that talking like this is a sign of GUILT GUILT GUILT, right?

[Moderator]

11. Locking. Duplicate and ...

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