Letter
to Bush regarding his military service,
by
Independent Media Institute
Dear
Mr. Bush,
Thank
you for providing the illegible Xeroxed partial
payroll sheets (or whatever they were) yesterday
covering a few of your days in the National
Guard. Now we know that you not only didn't
complete your tour of duty, you were actually
paid for work you never did. Did you cash those
checks? Wouldn't that be, um, illegal?
Watching
the press aggressively demand the truth from
your press secretary -- and refusing to accept
the deceit, the dodging, and the cover-up --
was a sight to behold, something we really haven't
seen since you took office.
More
than one reporter pointed out that those pieces
of paper your press secretary waved at them
yesterday mean nothing. Even if they aren't
forged documents, getting paid does not necessarily
mean you showed up to do your duties. As retired
Army Col. Dan Smith, a 26-year veteran, told
the AP:
"Pay
records don't mean anything except that you're
in or you're out," said Smith. "It doesn't necessarily
reflect what duty you've actually performed
because pay records simply record your unit
of assignment and then all of your pay and benefits
per pay period."
Mr.
Bush, this issue is not going to go away --
and I think yesterday's actions just dug you
into a deeper hole. You're probably wondering
why the heck this story won't just die. You
probably thought that after I brought it up
last month and then got slammed by Peter Jennings
for uttering the "D" word, the whole matter
would just disappear as fast as bag of blow
being thrown out the window of a speeding car
on a deserted Maine highway.
But
your "desertion" didn't go away -- and here's
the reason why. You have sent large numbers
of our sons and daughters in the National Guard
to their deaths in the last 11 months. You did
this while misleading their parents and the
nation with bogus lies about weapons of mass
destruction and scary phony Saddam ties to al
Qaeda. You sent them off to a never-ending war
so that your benefactors at Halliburton and
the oil companies could line their pockets.
And then you had the audacity to prance around
in a soldier's uniform on an aircraft carrier
proclaiming "Mission Accomplished" -- while
the cameras from your re-election campaign ad
agency rolled.
That
is what makes this whole business of you being
AWOL so despicable, and makes the grief-stricken
relatives want to turn away from you in disgust.
The reason your skipping-out on your enlistment
didn't matter in the 2000 election was because
we were not at war. Being stuck in a deadly,
daily quagmire now in 2004 makes your military
history-fiction and your fly-boy costume very
relevant.
You
still have not answered the questions surrounding
your National Guard "service." Let me repeat
them as simply as I can (all of them based on
the investigative work of the Associated Press
and the Boston Globe):
1.
How were you able to jump ahead of 500 other
applicants to get into the Texas Air National
Guard, thus guaranteeing you would not have
to go to Vietnam? What calls did your father
(who was then a United States Congressman representing
Texas) make on your behalf for you to get this
assignment?
2.
Why were you grounded (not allowed to fly) after
you either failed your physical or failed to
take it in July 1972? Was there a reason you
were afraid to take the physical? Or, did you
take it and not pass it? If so, why didn't you
pass it? Was it the urine test? The records
show that, after the Guard spent years and lots
of money training you to be a pilot, you never
flew for the rest of your time in the Guard.
Why? How much cocaine were you using in those
days?
3.
Can you produce one person who can verify that
he served with you in the Guard during the year
that your Texas commanders said you did not
show up? Why have you failed to bring forth
anyone who served with you in the Guard while
you were in Alabama?
4.
Can you tell us what you did when you claim
to have shown up in Alabama for Guard duty?
What were your duties? You were grounded, so
what did they have you do instead?
5.
Where are the sign-up sheets that would have
your name and service number on them for each
weekend you showed up? Aaron Brown on CNN told
us how, when he was in the reserves, he had
to sign in each time he reported, and his guest
from the Washington Post said, that's right,
and there would be "four copies of that record"
in the files of various agencies. Will you ask
those agencies to release those records?
6.
If you were in fact paid for that time when
you apparently went AWOL, will you authorize
the IRS to release your 1972-73 tax returns?
7.
How did you get an honorable discharge? What
strings were pulled? Who called whom?
Look,
I'm sorry to have put you through all this.
I was just goofing around when I made that comment
about wanting to see a debate between the general
and the deserter. I had no idea that it would
lead to this. And there you were, having to
suffer through Tim Russert on Sunday, saying
weird things like "I'm a war president!" I guess
you believe that, or you want us to believe
that. Americans have never voted out a Commander-in-Chief
during a war. I guess that's what you're hoping
for. You need the war.
But
we don't. And our troops in the National Guard
don't either. I know you see the writing on
the wall, so why not come clean? We are a forgiving
people, and though you will not be returned
to the White House, you will find us grateful
for a little bit of truth. Answer our questions,
apologize to the nation, and bring our kids
home.
©
2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights
reserved.
