John Bolton: "I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

John Bolton, Wimp
A Vietnam hawk who remained stateside.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, April 29, 2005, at 6:01 PM PT

http://slate.msn.com/id/2117827/

Scratch a saber-rattler, find a war wimp. You can just about set your watch by it, can't you? So it's entirely unsurprising to read the following about John Bolton, Yale '70, in the Yale Daily News:

Though Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he declined to enter combat duty, instead enlisting in the National Guard and attending law school after his 1970 graduation. "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy," Bolton wrote of his decision in the 25th reunion book. "I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."

President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations obviously never got the memo explaining that service in the National Guard during the Vietnam war requires no justification or apology—that's sooo Dan Quayle!—and that to suggest the National Guard was anything other than a major contributor to the fighting forces in Vietnam is a grievous insult to the National Guardsmen who really are a major contributor to the fighting forces in Iraq. Never mind that the overall mortality rate for National Guardsmen during the Vietnam War was lower than the mortality rate for rock-throwing antiwar protesters and bystanders in the Prentice Hall parking lot at Kent State on May 4, 1970. It's a little bit rude to put it that way, but I'm told the future U.N. ambassador admires bluntness.

[neverforget]

1. but he's really cool with sending other boys and girls to die in a

Middle Eastern desert. What a fucking coward! :puke:

[Carla in Ca]

18. The ones who have never been there usually do

*ush, cheney, bolton, etc.

[The Magistrate]

2. What A Contemptible Piece Of Shit This Reptile Is

No one had any particular desire to die in a Vietnamese rice paddy, though a number did, who had no particular choice in the matter, or pull to evade the draft that put them there and in their graves.

"Don't let him outdoors; vulture's might puke on his shadow."

[rasputin1952]

9. I have nothing to say ...except that it is appalling...

That this man even exists.

:mad:

[The Magistrate]

15. Indeed, My Friend

The old aristocracies had at least that one saving grace: they did their own damned fighting. Even into the twentieth century it was true; university classes come of age during the major wars took a tremendous proportion of casualties. These swaggering Babbits and Elmer Gantries writ large have neither decency nor honor, and are cowards to the core.

"Courage is the form every virtue must take at the sticking point."

[Wetzelbill]

3. Yeah, but he's "a tough guy"

He even has a grenade on his desk.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. "I don't like Bullies"

Wes Clark commenting on John Bolton. I think that about sums it up.

[AllyCat]

7. Oh good one General!

Where and when did he say that? Have a link?

[Tom Rinaldo]

25. It was during a TV appearance Clark was making on Cable.

I was watching. Bolton's nomination was still in committee. I'll try to ask around to dig up the specifics.

[Tom Rinaldo]

30. OK. Here is the story where Clark said that

I saw Clark say this on air but it got picked up in print too. Here is the AP story. The major portion of it deals with Clark talking about the effects of the proposed base cuts (he was great on that also - warning of the effort to create "super bases" where troops are isolated from off from the public).

Wesley Clark says base closings mean military isolation
Last Update: 5/14/2005 9:13:38 PM

"Clark also voiced his concerns about Bush's nomination of John Bolton to United Nations ambassador, calling Bolton "somewhat of a bully."

"He's going to have a very tough time in the United Nations," Clark said. "When you come in with that much overhang, with all this reputation against you, it's that much more difficult. And all that's known in the United Nations.

"Personally, I don't like bullies," he added. "Just because you outrank somebody doesn't mean you don't respect them and their judgment."

http://www.wpmi.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=F511DD39-5F55-43A3-AB50-E657C6EAFA4E

[jmcon007]

5. I fought in Viet Nam and returned with two Purple Hearts and

many terrible memories and, although I'm a christian and usually try to halfway control my language and my outbursts, allow me to ask Mr. Bolton:

HOW MANY OF THE OVER 58,000 DO YOU SUPPOSE WANTED TO DIE IN A SOUTHEAST ASIA RICE PADDY, YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER?!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

6. Well, I'm a Christian too, and whatever it's worth...

...I salute you.

:patriot:

[Erika]

8. Cheney said he also had other priorities

How many of our kids have been seduced into service today as a way of getting a further/higher education?

[oscar111]

13. 'DRAFT-DOGER BOLTON"- good label from now on

make it his name.

[oxbow]

14. Tough Shit Dick

You think the 1,700 dead and 11,000 wounded didn't have other priorities? Go fuck yourself.

[moondust]

Thank you jmcon007.

Those were exactly my sentiments but I could not have come close to saying it better or with more gravitas than yourself.

:patriot:

[flygal]

19. Well said!

[Lindacooks]

10. Who the fuck WANTED to die in a rice paddy, you lying

piece of shit?? Another asshole chickenhawk - send other to die, but total yellow-bellied cowards themselves.

[FrenchieCat]

12. My thoughts exactly......

Thanks for saying them for me! :thumbsup:

[Gemini Cat]

11. I hate the stench of a chicken shit in the morning

afternoon and any other time! I know of several guys older than me that didn't want to go to a "South Asian rice paddy," but go they did. A lot of them didn't come back either.

[fob]

16. Hey John, why do you now want our men and women to die in a Middle

East Desert?

Ass-fucking-hole of the lowest order, that mulefucker is.

[alittlelark]

17. Wow, I have even less respect for him than I did before reading this

I didn't know that was possible.

[tavalon]

20. It's called negative respect

I had zero before, now I've hit the negative numbers.

Who the fuck wants to die in a rice paddy, you fucking neo-con chickenhawk bastard?!?!!!!!!

Why does this * junta have to challenge my anti-death penalty stance every fucking day?!?!!!:grr:

[Twist_U_Up]

21. another chickehhawk in the hen house

[elperromagico]

22. Did ANYBODY want to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy?

I doubt it was on anybody's list of goals.

[bklyncowgirl]

23. The guys who DID die in rice paddies were not thrilled about it either.

God, is there any lower form of pond scum than a chicken hawk.

[rman]

24. No-one did, you jerk.

-

[DemoTex]

26. Mr. Bolton, go straight to "The Wall" and say that .. if you dare.

None of the 58,000 memorialized there wanted to die in Vietnam either. Fall to your knees at "The Wall" and thank your god and those brave men and women that your sorry name isn't etched on a black granite panel. Then think about the 1700+ US troops killed in Iraq and the 100,000 Iraqis killed and let that haunt you for a while. On second thought, you probably cannot be haunted. Your spirit, like those of Bu$h and Cheney, is way too evil for haunts.

[kodi]

27. so, they sent my uncle and he died in your place, mr bolton, you asshole

every time i see and hear a chickenhawk i want to bust their head wide open and tell them, "that's for my uncle jim."

[Tsiyu]

28. This reminds me of a female Southern plantation owner's diary

Can't recall the woman's name, but she went on and on about how the rice fields in August were unfit for white people. The slaves, on the other hand, were just "lazy" when they didn't want to suffer the heat, mosquitoes and malaria.

What the hell is up with people? Too "special" for the world...

[cthrumatrix]

29. fits well with the AWOL president

[spooky3]

31. Can you imagine the outrage if a Dem had said that?

[Jack Rabbit]

32. A typical neoconservative

They believe that patriotism and sacrifice is for suckers.

They were self-important elitists who thought that kids from ghettos and barrios were for fight and die in Vietnam while they preserved themselves to start senseless colonial wars in the future. Mission accomplished, guys.

Bolton is just another neoconservative chickenhawk. They all make me sick.

It won't do them any good to point out that Clinton avoided duty in Vietnam, just as did so many of there number. Clinton's avoidance of the war made the statement that no American should have to fight and die in Vietnam. Bolton's war dodging made the statement that I, John Bolton, should not have to fight and die in Vietnam.

[IndianaGreen]

33. Bolton considered the war in Vietnam already lost, yet he supported...

Though Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he declined to enter combat duty, instead enlisting in the National Guard and attending law school after his 1970 graduation.

Bolton considered the war in Vietnam already lost, yet he supported Nixon's "stay the course" waging of the war. Who cares how many died for a failed policy and a misguided war, as long as one supported a Republican President's war!

Bolton might as well say the same about the Iraq war and Bush!

[DeepModem Mom]

34. kick

[warrens]

35. It bears repeating; it was almost impossible to get into the NG

Quayle pulled the old "there were lots of slots," without mentioning they were being kept, by law, for returning vets so they could make some money while they tried to find a job, which was not easy in the late 60s and early 70s.