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President Bush says he is running for re-election as a "war president." Democrats, who used to insist that military service shouldn't be an issue in presidential politics, are saying, bring him on. They have opened fire on two fronts - denouncing Bush for starting a war in Iraq and for allegedly goofing off as a member of the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.
Do we really have to reopen the Vietnam debate? The only war I care about is the one still going in Iraq, and for that Bush has plenty to answer for. What Bush did in the Guard more than three decades ago concerns me a lot less than how, as commander in chief, he led the nation to war in Iraq with misleading intelligence that exaggerated the threat Saddam Hussein posed. Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to get out of Vietnam before we can talk about getting out of Iraq, where 123,000 U.S. troops are putting their lives on the line.
Democrats want to refight the Vietnam War, which was not the case when a Vietnam draft avoider named Bill Clinton was their presidential candidate in 1992. This year, their presumptive nominee is John Kerry, a Vietnam War hero who came home and became a leader of the antiwar movement - a twofer who appeals to both hawks and doves.
Voters can decide for themselves how much a candidate's military service record matters. It didn't do much for the Republican presidential campaigns of Bob Dole, who lost the use of an arm in World War II, or John McCain, a Vietnam prisoner of war. Democrats obviously believe the issue will play to Kerry's advantage this year as public opinion seems to be turning against the president on Iraq.
Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, a staunch defender of his friend Bill Clinton's draft avoidance, reignited the issue and set off a media frenzy when he recycled allegations that Bush was "AWOL" for a year during his National Guard service. On the defensive, the White House last week was busy digging out Guard records to try to shoot down the AWOL allegation. Among other things, the records show Bush, who flew an F-102 fighter, was on base for a dental appointment during the time he was supposed to be absent, and that before he enlisted in the Guard he had been arrested for a college prank and speeding. His pay records don't add much, either. Nor do the memories of retired members of Bush's Guard unit. Some say they don't remember seeing him around the base; others say they do.
For his part, Kerry said from the campaign trail he doesn't know if Bush was on duty at the times he was supposed to be. Then he threw this jab: "Just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question."
And in a recent Fox News interview, the Massachusetts Democrat said: "I've never made any judgments about any choice somebody made about avoiding the draft, about going to Canada, going to jail, being a conscientious objector, going into the National Guard."
Those words infuriated Republicans who accused Kerry of comparing members of the National Guard with draft dodgers. Bob Dole wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Kerry in fact had made a judgment on his issue when he defended Bill Clinton against charges of draft evasion. "We do not need to divide America over who served and how," Kerry said in 1992. Dole suggested Kerry should stick to that position.
Let's be honest: We all know why there was a long waiting list to get into the National Guard during the Vietnam War. It put you beyond the draft's reach with little chance your Guard unit would be activated. And we also know that it helped to have political connections. Bush, whose father was then a Texas congressman, was accepted the same day he applied. Bush was not the only one who got in that way.
Meanwhile, anti-Kerry veterans are trying to shift attention from Kerry's war record to his role in the antiwar movement. There is a a 1970 photo on the Internet of Kerry at an antiwar rally with Jane Fonda. Some Vietnam veterans still consider Fonda a traitor for going to Hanoi and posing with North Vietnamese troops on the barrel of an antiaircraft gun.
It looks like we're in for a nasty campaign season. Last week, while the Democrats were questioning Bush's military service, Rush Limbaugh was on radio airing a rumor about Kerry's personal life from the Matt Drudge Web site, which broke the Monica Lewinsky story. So far, mainstream news organizations haven't touched the rumor, but it may be only a matter of time.
So here we are at war in Iraq, with budget deficits threatening our children's future and the threat of terrorism still with us - and we're talking about Bush's National Guard service and Kerry sharing the stage with Jane Fonda at antiwar rallies. Would someone please change the subject and tell me how we're going to get out of Iraq and restore fiscal sanity in Washington?
- Philip Gailey's e-mail address is Gailey@sptimes.com