Friday, April 01, 2005

Bush works things out after pullout (oldie)

The Kansas City Star's Rhonda Chriss Lokeman on February 15, 2004 wrote, "while untold numbers of young men and women were losing their limbs and lives in Southeast Asia, Bush somehow 'worked things out.'"

By "worked things out," Lokeman was referring to George W. Bush leaving the National Guard early so he could attend Harvard Business School.

Bush was last paid for Guard duty on July 30, 1973. The last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973. The official halt of combat activity in Southeast Asia occurred on August 15, 1973, when the U.S. bombing of Cambodia ended. In other words, official combat activity in Southeast Asia ended before Bush began business school.

If Lokeman were truly concerned about a future president who "worked things out," she could have written a column about Bill Clinton, who missed his draft induction date of July 28, 1969. How did he work that out, especially in a year in which nearly 10,000 U.S. servicemen were killed in action?