Re: National Guard

["M. Katz" <mmkatz@aya.yale.edu>]

More sticks and stones.  This list would enlighten more -- and burn less 
-- if disagreement didn't always come with accusations like "coward."  
The fact remains that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both worked 
connections to avoid active military service in Vietnam.  While Bush 
would indeed have had to serve if called up, he must quite reasonably 
have expected that his National Guard stint would not involve combat. 
Otherwise, why would he have worked connections to get a spot even 
though the unit was full when he applied?  No doubt he pushed out some 
young kid with less clout.

It's also true that Al Gore -- flouting the liberal activism of his 
peers and professors at Harvard -- enlisted and carried a gun in 
Vietnam, even if his duties reporting for "Stars and Stripes" weren't 
combative.  He was a bright kid with a cute fiance (wife?) and a dad in 
the U.S. Senate.  He could have avoided service  easily enough with a 
grad school deferment or pulling strings, so cut the guy a break.

As we've seen on this list, the willingness to serve straddles political 
divides (see, e.g., George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy).  It's not 
always about politics.  Or about shooting a gun.  And enough name-calling.

Mandy Katz