As usual, the political pondents, as well as the president avoid the real issue about the National Guard service of George W. Bush. The focus is on the CBS documents not the truth of the president's service and his truthfulness about that service today.
First is how Bush got into the Guard. He contends he got in through his own merits. That has been shown to be untrue. The former Speaker of the Texas House, Ben Barns has admitted a friend of the senior Bush asked him to get George W. into the guard. The president's former professor at Harvard, Yoshi Tsurumi, has come forward and told CNN that George W. admitted his father had a family friend get him into the Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. In adition, his flight aptitude test scores have been found and George W. scored in the bottom 25% and would never have been sent to flight school and given a direct commission without the help of Ben Barns. George W. was also placed ahead of 100 other young men that did not have the pull George W. had. Inspite of all this, President Bush doen not come clean as to how he got into the Guard and that is the real significance in 2004.
The same problem exists with the President's fulfillment of his responsibilities to the Guard. Although CBS used documents that were not authentic, the facts were TRUE. Lt. Bush failed to take a required physical and was grounded. The tax payers spent lot of money to train George W. to be a pilot and when he did not obey regulations and lost his ability to fly he DID NOT MEET HIS RESPONSIBILITY. He did not obey Air Force Regulations and it does not matter where he was attending drills. In addition, his commander's secretary stated that Geoerge W. Bush was ordered to take the required physical by LTC Killian. The pay records of Lt. Bush show for five months he did not attend the required monthly drills at ANY LOCATION. His Officer Efficiency Report confirms Lt. Bush did not attend drills. The policy at that time for members of the Guard and Reserve that did not attend drills was for the member to be put on active duty. George W. was allowed to miss drills with no penalty. Today George W. says he met his responsibilities and he received an Honorable Discharge. It is true he some how received an Honorable Discharge but he did not meet his obligations or obey the regulations when he did not get a physical and attend required drill.
If the members of the military today did the same things as Lt Bush, we would not have an effective military. There is nothing more important to a military organization than for the members to obey their orders. In 2004, our Commander -in-Chief is not telling the truth about how he got into the Guard of the fact he did not fulfill his obligations or obey the oath he took when he was commissioned!