Reply #4: worse than a chickenhawk -- here's the story [View All]

[grasswire]

Marc Racicot, like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rep. Tom Delay and many in the Bush administration, is a chickenhawk. These are fellows who evaded the draft of the Vietnam Era but who are now beating the drums of war.

According to a press release on the Republican National Committee website, “Marc Racicot graduated from Carroll College in 1970, where he was an Army ROTC Graduate and Class President.” Which is intriguing, since Carroll College had not had a ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program since World War II.

From the available evidence, what really happened is this: The first draft lottery was held in December 1969. snip Meanwhile, Marc Racicot was a senior at Carroll when his draft lottery number was drawn: With a birthday of July 24, 1948, he was 23 out of 366. With that low a number, he was to be ripe for the draft once he finished school in the spring of 1970. But somehow, Racicot went onto law school at Missoula, where he apparently joined Army ROTC. By the time he finished law school in 1973, the draft was over, Vietnam was winding down, and Racicot went into the Army - as a captain and lawyer, and was stationed in West Germany for 32 months, safe, secure, well paid and privileged, prosecuting soldiers under the Army’s Draconian system of martial law. Now, it looks good on his resume.

Could he have been drafted? Could he have been subjected to war, like the 268 Montana men who were killed in action during Vietnam? (big snip worth reading) By May 1970, when I was released from the Army, men with lottery numbers 121 through 150 were being called up, while some men with numbers as high as 195 had been drafted.

Four years ago, I wondered how somebody with a draft lottery number of 23 could escape the 1970 call-up and go on to law school for three years. So I contacted the U.S. Selective Service national headquarters in Arlington, Va., and asked for Marc Racicot’s draft board proceedings, which are a matter of public record. Fine, they answered, but where was he registered? I assumed it had to be either in Lincoln County (Libby), where he grew up and went to high school, or else Lewis and Clark County (Helena), where he attended Carroll College and his father coached basketball. Weeks later, on Nov. 24, 1998, they called back: a search turned up no record of Racicot registered for the draft in those counties, according to the Selective Service.

I found my own records from Lewis and Clark County, and those entries end when I was conscripted into the U.S. Army in May 1968. The records show others of my age group who were also drafted, deferred for medical reasons, or had enlisted. But no Marc Racicot.

Ten men from Racicot’s home county were listed as killed in action in Vietnam. There were 12 men from Lewis & Clark County, some of whom were my good friends and high school classmates. As any of my fellow veterans can attest, it is not pleasant looking over these lists. And it is not pleasant to contemplate thoughts of chickenhawk politicians sending young troops to do what they were unwilling to do when the rest of us answered the call.

Did Marc Racicot even register for the draft? I don’t know. An e-mail message 10 days ago to the Republican National Committee has received no response. (snip) When he attacked Senate Democrats for not leaping onto Bush’s war bandwagon, Racicot said, “It’s a legitimate issue because it reflects upon the character and capacity to lead.” Well said, for once, Marc. Now apply those same criteria to the Bush, Cheney and Racicot military records.

http://www.billingsnews.com/story?storyid=3182&issue=98