Sunday, October 26, 2008
Major Avoidance
It surprised me, folks, to learn that Biden, from 11/63 to 1/68, received a grand-total of five student-draft deferments (deferments, obviously, that kept him from having to serve in Vietnam). It also surprised me to learn that this was the some number that Vice President Dick Cheney received roughly during the same period (actually, Cheney is two years older than Biden and, because of this, his chances of having to serve during the more intensified parts of the carnage were LESS). I also learned (and here's where it gets real good) that Biden, once he finally graduated from Law School, ultimately received a medical diagnosis of asthma (no prior diagnosis or record of treatments could I find) - a diagnosis that conveniently made him medically ineligible for service, period........................................................Do I have a problem with any of this. No, not really. I mean, who the hell (other than the most patriotic among us) in his right mind wanted to go to Vietnam (not just a war, mind you, but a stupid/needless one), for Christ? I just thought that the parallels to Cheney were kind of interesting. Granted, Cheney supposedly supported the war and, even after 1966 (the year he turned 25), he still could have enlisted. But, damn it, I didn't think that whether or not a person supported a war was necessarily a grounds for avoiding it. And the fact that we've had such a litany of these pols (Cheney, Bush, Quayle, Clinton, Dean, Biden), who seemingly had other "priorities" during Vietnam and who left that war to the poorest among us - I just find it kind of revealing, that's all..................................................P.S. While it may be true that Biden was against the war in Vietnam, let us NOT forget that in 2002 he voted to give George W. Bush what amounted to a blank-check; a blank-check that Bush used to get us involved in Iraq. Four thousand American deaths later....................................................P.S. 2 Seriously, though, am I the only one who finds it curious that Biden went all through high-school, college, his times as a life-guard, and, finally, law-school, and never seemingly sought help for this supposed asthma? I don't know, folks, it sounds at least a little fishy to me.
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7 comments:
A couple more points here. Number one, Biden makes absolutely no mention of asthma in his memoir, "Promises to Keep". Instead/actually, he focuses on what GOOD SHAPE he was in as a kid, what a great athlete he was, etc.. Point number two, it must be pointed out that asthma diagnoses in the late 60s were very rudimentary. Often all it took was a complaint from the patient. Point number three, let me use a quote from former Senator Bob Kerry. "As I remember it, at that time if you could walk and chew gum, the military would take you." And, finally, as was stated by a blogger on plnewsforum.com, "it (Biden's medical exclusion) would not have happened without considerable whining."
and we all know about Will's deferments
There wasn't a draft when Will was old enough to serve. And Will never voted to give George W. Bush a blank check.
Will never served and makes no excuses for never having served
Barack never served and makes no excuses for never having served.
never saw or heard obama attack anyone else for service or non service as you have
I don't attack people for service. That's ludicrous. And I only pointed out Biden's lack of service because it was 1)so identical to Cheney's and 2)it highlighted his hypocrisy (not serving but willing to give Bush a blank check).
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