George W. Bush:
Draft Dodger

Get to the point

Let's knock off the bullshit, let's stop dancing around the subject, let's just call George W. Bush exactly what he is:  DRAFT DODGER, MALINGERER, and COWARD.

Look at the facts

On May 27, 1968, George W. Bush was 12 days away from losing his student draft deferment, at a time when 350 Americans a week were dying in combat. The National Guard, seen by many as the most respectable way to avoid Vietnam, had a huge waiting list -- a year and a half in Texas, over 100,000 men nationwide. Yet Bush and his family friends pulled strings, and the young man was admitted the same day he applied, regardless of any waiting list.

Bush's unit commander, Colonel "Buck" Staudt, was so excited about his VIP recruit that he staged a special ceremony for the press so he could have his picture taken administering the oath (even though the official oath had been given by a captain earlier.)

Bush and his allies have tried to deny this with several stories -- each of which changes with the telling -- but Bush himself admits lobbying Colonel Staudt, who approved him, and court documents confirm that close family friend and oil magnate Sid Adger called Texas Speaker of the House Ben Barnes, who called General James Rose, the head of the Texas Air National Guard, to get Bush in. Rose, who is now dead, told his friend and former legislator Jake Johnson that "I got that Republican congressman's son from Houston into the Guard."

Staudt's unit, the 147th, was infamous as a nesting place for politically connected and celebrity draft avoiders. Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen's son was in the unit, as was Republican Senator John Tower's son, both of Sid Adger's sons, and at least 7 members of the Dallas Cowboys.

Go here to read a long version of this article, complete with sources.

And that, folks, is that

George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard at a time when no one else was getting in.  He joined the Guard to avoid the draft.  He dodged his duty as a citizen.  I served in Vietnam with a lot of other young men whose fathers were not Congressmen.  Almost 60,000 of them died.  George W. Bush is a coward and a liar.  He can kiss my ass.