From Newsday:

THE SIGHT OF President George W. Bush in a 101st Airborne Division jacket this week, surrounded by troops, really irked me. There he was, the Chicken-Hawk-in-Chief, wearing the Screaming Eagle patch of a division that fought and died in Vietnam. I wonder how many of the troops standing with him felt the irony.



Of the possible stances toward the Vietnam War - such as accepting induction (which my brother and I did) or avoiding the draft as a matter of conscience (which we should have done) - Bush and others like him took the least honorable: not opposing the war, but not serving either.



This doesn't even make sense.

Bush chose to defend his home state in the Texas Air National Guard. Vice President Dick Cheney did no military service at all.



This is useful history to remember now, when Bush and Cheney, long past draft age themselves, are mouthing macho rhetoric in the struggle against terrorism. Apparently they're more willing to put young Americans in harm's way than they were willing to put themselves. They should temper their rhetoric to match their record - and refrain from wearing the patches of combat units.

Bob Keeler



As Newsmax pointed out, somehow Keeler managed to restrain these opinions during the eight-year administration of a man who loathed the military, fled the draft--like a weasel, not on a basis of consistent moral principles--and then sent soldiers into Bosnia, Somalia, and elsewhere.