In article ,
says...
[...]
Kerry/4months-It bothers me a little that Kerry asked for and was
denied a deferrment, then volunteered for the navy to avoid being
drafted. It bothers me that after 4 months he asks to cut his tour
short by almost a year using a loophole while others spent weeks in
hospitals and still finished their tours. And the fact that he then
went before congress and on TV calling all of us killers... yeah that
stinks too. But it was all in the past and somewhat forgotten... and
if he didn't make his "serving" the focal point of his campaign, it
still would be forgotten. Kerry's bad.
[...]

And it doesn't bother you that Bush was in the national guard for the
same reasons? And that daddy used his influence to allow him to
leapfrog NG waiting lists to pull it off?

It's true that he does deserve some measure of credit for making it
through flight school, but for anyone that's ever been through the
process, there's flight school and there's VIP flight school. The
latter is all about the VIP saving face, keeping him alive, being
available for photo ops, and passing him on to the next level of
training responsibility at the earliest opportunity. I don't know
enough about Bush's record to say whether or not this is true in his
case (although he would be a prototypical candidate for such treatment)
- heck, he might have been a great pilot - but then again, so might have
Kerry had he decided on that particular flavor of evasion.

Kerry's emphasis on "serving" is pretty gross - bordering on being as
ludicrous as Bush's visit to the aircraft carrier wearing a flight suit.
I think it was an unfortunate question of percieved political expediency
in reaction to the public's perception that he wouldn't be "tough on
terror."

But I agree with the majority of your post. It's definitely "pick your
poison" time. I'd have been inclined to go with McCain too had he
decided to run, but more as a reward for what he suffered in Viet Nam
than anything else. That seems as valid a reason as any in today's
political climate.

- Al