Bush's Guard Record Resists Easy Review -- NYT

[Bozita]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/politics/campaign/15GUAR.html

February 15, 2004

Bush's Guard Record Resists Easy Review
By DAVID BARSTOW

For years now, Republican and Democratic officials have urged voters to consider George W. Bush's military record as if through opposite ends of a telescope.

The Bush team has emphasized the long focus, stressing only the most basic outlines of his service: that he signed up for the Texas Air National Guard in 1968, became a pilot and then was discharged without incident in 1973.

Democrats, meanwhile, have encouraged the microscopic view, suggesting that scandal lurked in the nitty-gritty details of how Mr. Bush won a coveted Guard slot at the height of the Vietnam War and then managed an early exit to attend Harvard's business school. They aggressively fanned skepticism about gaps in the president's service records, including the particulars of why he lost flight privileges some two years before his discharge date.

Until this month, the Republican defense of Mr. Bush's military record, sticking to the bare essentials, had successfully neutralized a succession of newspaper articles that raised questions about Mr. Bush's service. But now, with Iraq casualties mounting, with angry Democrats coalescing behind a decorated Vietnam veteran and with credibility questions dogging Mr. Bush, the broad-brush defense has been abandoned.

Still, even through the fog of political combat it is possible from an examination of Mr. Bush's military records to get a firm fix on several important points along the path of his National Guard service. It is also possible to identify the areas that remain in dispute and the questions that have yet to be fully answered.

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[7th_Sephiroth]

1. obvious proof of doctoring#1

failed to take aphysical and got an honorable discharge

[gulliver]

2. NYT blew it on this one. Easy questions are there.

But no answers.

1. Why aren't there any fellow flyers vouching for Bush showing up in Alabama? There were supposedly only thirty pilots.

2. Why did Bush miss the physical and get suspended from flying? They won't answer.

3. And Helen Thomas's infamous question: Was Bush ever forced to serve community service in that Guard timeframe? Scott McClellan danced around it for about a dozen repetitions, never answering it.

[papau]

4. ARF retirement 40 points last year is less than allowed to get credit.

means he was AWOL

and the free points to cover - for being in the Guard - were only 5 - not enough to get the credit.

So what is so hard - the math?

:-)

[grasswire]

3. ERRORS! ERRORS!

1. The Calhoun testimony has been debunked. Calhoun said Bush was there during a time when the records show he was NOT there.

2. The actual 1974 discharge date is not mentioned, nor is the assigment to the Denver "paper" unit, which was the apparent punishment for missing duty.

[JoFerret]

5. Community service, community service

Helen Thomas, Helen Thomas.

[MikeG]

6. The fact that it has been front page in the NYT for 1 wk is a big win

I remember when this stuff was passed around between just us.