During the first eight years of the millennium, a large segment of the the American public bought the line spoon fed to them by the propagandists who work at the networks and major newspapers that as a young man George W. Bush avoided combat in Vietnam by using family connections to join the National Guard.
Well, as it turns out, Dubya not only picked one of the few Guard units whose members were seeing combat but he actually volunteered for it himself.
While supporters had heard and accepted reports of this, in a bit of serious irony Dan Rather’s lawsuit — Captain Dan is suing CBS for $70 million claiming he wasn’t able to defend his story alleging special treatment for Dubya because, don’t laugh, CBS executives wanted to curry favor with the President — has conclusively established the fact to all but the most psychotic anti-Republicans.
Newsman Bernard Goldberg has reported that on page 130 of the report created by a panel of outsiders CBS assembled to get sort out Rathergate, it was noted that Rather co-conspirator Mary Mapes had information prior to the airing of the Sept. 8 2004 segment that President Bush, while in the Texas Air National Guard volunteered for service in Vietnam but was turned down in favor of more experienced pilots. For example, a flight instructor who served in theTexANG with Lt. Bush told Mapes in 1999 that Bush“did want to go to Vietnam but others went first.” Similarly, several others advised Mapes in 1999, and again in 2004 before Sept. 8,that Lieutenant Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam but did not haveenough flight hours to qualify.