Al Reid wrote:

Kerry sought a deferment to study for one year and was turned
down. He then enlisted. Edwards requested and received a
college deferment. As it turned out, many people exercised
their option for a deferment at that time. Clinton is the only
one who actually dodged the draft.

However, I would be perfectly happy to forget the draft
status/service of all of the candidates and discuss the
issues.

The draft stuff doesn't much interest me much either. There were
a lot of good people who felt (strongly) that we shouldn't have
been in Viet Nam and did everything they could to avoid becoming
participants themselves. There were also a lot of good people who
went willingly because they felt it was their duty. There
were/are people in both groups worthy of admiration and respect.

On the other hand (given that they both served) I am interested
in /how/ these guys served. I'm interested in whether or not
they're capable of exercising real courage when their world (and
ours!) becomes a particulary frightening place - or whether
they'll lie to avoid responsibility - or whether they'll hunker
down gibbering to themselves and leave the rest of us to deal
with the danger and the consequences of their denial.

I don't care about deferments. I don't particularly care about
medals (which I perceive as at least partially political). I
especially don't care about Purple Hearts - it takes no talent at
all to get hurt in combat. I'm sorry that people do; but getting
hurt isn't an indicator of human quality.

It does concern me that one of the candidates appears to be
trying to /sell/ fear to the electorate. It leads me to wonder
just /whose/ fear he's trying to peddle; and whether that's an
indication of a lack of courage in the candidate...

[Dos centavos]

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto, Iowa USA