my father volunteered, too. my point is that everyone who wanted deferment
and had some way to qualify for deferment did it. you didn't need to be a
senator's son to get deferment. bush managed to get into the texas national
guard, big deal. the whole thing is just lame.
and yes, john kerry did what he did gambling that he would be ok and that he
would make a political career out of it. he was on a boat. he was not in the
infantry. he had every reason to believe that he would survive. no, it isn't
only dems that can be opportunists. plenty of gop opportunists as well. but
kerry is an opportunist, no two ways about it.
as for mccain, read Robert Timberg's book, The Nightingale's Song. He
describes McCain as basically a hard-drinking Irishman who got serious after
serving in the war and going through hell.
On 11/11/06, William wrote:
>
> > blah blah blah. everyone who could get a deferment or hide from Vietnam
> duty
> > did
>
> Bullshit. My father qualified for four exemptions, including college.
> My grandfather attempted to use his connections in the Arkansas and
> Lousiana state legislatures to prevent my father from going to
> Vietnam.
>
> When my father graduated from Tulane, he was commissioned a second
> lieutenant in the Army, Transportation Corps.
>
> He volunteered to go to Vietnam. Two months after he was in country on
> his first tour, he volunteered to be transferred to Armor. He served
> in the 11th ACR under Patton.
>
> He went twice.
>
> So no, not everybody that _could_ did.
>
> FWIW, he got his draft notice forwarded to him while he was sitting in
> a firebase outside Saigon.
>
> > John Kerry volunteered for service so he could shoot a war movie for his
> > later run for Congress, which is exactly what he did. His elitism was
> clear
> > when he came back and did the whole "I'm a protesting veteran" shtick,
> which
> > again, he basically did to launch his political career. Elitist and
> cynical
> > all in one.
>
> So let's see if I got this right. John Kerry deliberately put himself
> in harm's way so that he could say he did? Played the odds that he
> wouldn't get killed or wounded in combat? Took a chance that at some
> future date he'd be able to use the fact that he volunteered for
> combat duty for political gain?
>
> He was already in the Navy and was already assigned to the Vietnam
> Theatre of Operations. He didn't _need_ to do anything else.
>
> Do you also suppose that McCain deliberately got himself shot down and
> captured, then subsequently tortured so he could use that experience
> as a political ploy later in his career?
>
> What about Stockdale, RIP, him, too?
>
> How about when Scwartzkopf was a Major in Vietnam, dealing with the Ia
> Drang Valley debacle ("We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" is excellent
> reading on this...), do you think he was planning ahead to his career
> as a General and how he would kick the shit out of the Iraqi
> Republican Guard?
>
> If not, how come Kerry is imbued with clairvoyance?
>
> Is that a special liberal trait? Or is it because he's Dem that he
> should be prusumed evil and manipulative?
> --
> will
>
> "If my life weren't funny, it would just be true;
> and that would just be unacceptable."
> - Carrie Fisher
>
>
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