Never Fight a Land War in Asia: No Athiests in Foxholes: Bush is an Atheist?

With the outbreak of World War I, Adolph found an employer who was willing to take him on and make him do his job: the Army. Really it didn't matter what they trained him to do, his job was probably going to be to sit in a cold, muddy trench until one of several things happened.

A lot of people completed their assignments by breathing in one of several deadly chemical concoctions the Brits had created. These caused terrible, terrible deaths. Another way to die was to be asked to pop out of your cozy trench and run to the other guy's trench, shoot him and capture the trench. This usually resulted in you being added to the growing carpet of dead guys who were asked to try this before you. Don't worry, they'll get it right next time.

Despite the horrible odds of an awful death, Hitler didn't have a lot of options. At least he'd die having eaten something even if the British nerve gas made him puke it up. Also, he'd have an opportunity to do something that everyone dreams of doing at least once in their life: shooting at the French.

In the German army, Hitler found more than a supply of regular meals, he discovered a capacity for bold and fearless action. His exceptional bravery in combat was twice decorated. Hitler's commanding officer took the steps to have his bravery recognized, because he saw a great talent for leadership in the young corporal and knew that Hitler could accomplish great things, for himself and his country, if given the opportunity and support he needed to advance. History doesn't record what that officer eventually thought of his protege's accomplishments. There's not much record of what happened to this prescient officer after WWI. Whether or not he stayed in Germany or whether or not he survived the next war are unknown — but that's sadly true of many other German Jews.

When the Vietnamese people proved suprisingly resistent to being saved from communism, the American military started needing more young, healthy men, to demonstrate the blessings of liberty to them. Thus began the Vietnam War Draft. This caused a great split in America.

Many felt that it was better to fight in what might be an unjust war than to reject the primacy of a patriot's duty to his country. Although very few Americans supported the war, these citizens joined the military and served their term.

Others felt that the war was either an unlawful abuse of the executive War Powers or that the Vietnam campaign itself was grossly unethical. For them, it was either a betrayal of their American liberty or the ideals expressed in the Nuremburg trials, that following orders was not an excuse for committing war crimes. They resisted or fled the country, becoming criminals.

A few people were able to find legal ways of avoiding the honor of spreading peace and freedom — and possibly some of their body parts — to the defoliated landscape of Vietnam.

A young Bill Clinton took a student deferment. This earned him a lot of scorn from veterans groups, but his action was consistent with his opposition to the war. The group who really deserves scorn, but had yet to get it, are those who avoided going to fight, and still managed to appear as if they supported the engagement in Vietnam.

Some of these "Chicken Hawks" would claim disqualifying physical impairments that strain the limits of credulity. For example is Rush Limbaugh's famed "anal cyst" or Phil Gramm's "bad knee."

The best solution was a National Guard position. It was actual military service, but the only people you'd ever shoot at might be unarmed college students and that can't be very dangerous. The problem is that this was a popular option and the Guard was pretty much fully staffed. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard, which reportedly had 600-700 young men on a waiting list to fill zero open positions.

Not a problem. Those guys weren't sons of wealthy oil men — or grandsons of treasonous Nazi-supporting war profiteers. With the help of Texas Speaker of the House, Ben Barnes, Bush jumped the waiting list.

I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.

Colin Powell,My American Journey, Autobiography

George Junior entered the Guard in 1968; at the time 350 Americans each week were dying in Vietnam. Bush was trained to

fly the F-102 fighter jet; this training took two tax-payer funded years. After only six weeks of basic airman training, a "special appointment" promoted him to 2nd Lieutenant. This normally required either eight full semesters of college ROTC courses, eighteen months of military service, or completion of Air Force officer training school.

They could sense I was going to be one of the great pilots of all time.

George W. Bush, quote, Houston Chronicle, 19-August, 1988

After his basic training, Bush went inactive to work on Florida Senator Edward J. Gurney's campaign. After the election, Bush reactivated and transfered to a Georgia unit. In December 1969, he returned to Houston, and four months later, received his "wings."

In June 1970, he joined the Texas Air National Guard's so-called "Champagne Unit," which got its name for being a haven for the sons of Texas' elite. Among his comrades at the time were John Conally's son, Lloyd Bentson's son, John Tower's son, and seven Dallas Cowboys football players.

That fall, daddy Bush was rejected in a Senate bid, and Junior was rejected from the University of Texas Law School. Maybe with daddy out of a position of power, things changed, because in 1971, George W. actually fulfilled his service requirements.

In 1972, George's plans for his military career were upended when Nixon declared war. No, not on Vietnam, he never did that, Nixon declared war on drugs.

So poor George, who's gone to all this trouble to join the Texas Air National Guard to prove that he's on our side

without having to fight and Nixon starts this war on drugs and now he's got to pee in a cup so they can tell if he's a criminal or not. Since its now 1972 and his earliest answer for when he stopped taking cocaine was 1974, it begins to become clear why Bush ignored two sets of orders to report to his phyical exam. This resulted in him being barred from flying and assigned to a disciplinary detail. Bush's disciplinary detail was in Denver — why not Hanoi?!

Why did Texas even have an F-102 fighter jet they needed someone to fly? Well, there was a cold war on, and… well… you never know.

The Texas Intelligence Agency, had begun to suspect that Mexican Communists were sneaking over the border and performing subversive activities like picking fruit, digging ditches and simple lawncare services. Their agenda was unknown for all communication was encoded; so far we knew only a few keywords, such as burrito, which meant "rocket launcher" and, Hola, amigo, which meant "Death to America." Whatever they were up to, Texas was ready to drop bombs on it and strafe it with machine gun fire.

Instead of taking his physical, Bush requested a transfer to a unit in Alabama. This was denied because there were no circumstances that met the regulatory requirements under which such a transfer could be approved. Days later, he asked again and was approved. The military is so fickle, isn't it? Bush never showed up for duty in Alabama, although he did go to the state. He was spotted working on a senatorial campaign.

Left? Resigned? No, left. He just went somewhere. No one knows where. Left for a year. I'll bet you didn't know you could get away with anything remotely like that even in the National Guard. You can't.

In 1973, eight months before his official release date, Bush was discharged service, this time with some official notice basically amounting to "he's got some shit to do, so he's going." Certainly someone was pulling strings to get him out early, but I can't imagine anyone trying to keep him in.

This is the guy who is sending our troops into battle. Clinton was publically villainized for refusing to join the military and finding a legal way not to; Bush was a disgrace to the profession and made a mockery of those who sacrificed — and we don't hear squat about it.