I don’t care if you dodged the draft, just don’t ever try to comment about what you expect soldiers to do.
You lost that right.
Everyone who avoided, evaded or finagled their way out of Vietnam should know that his place was taken by someone else who didn’t have to go otherwise. And that person probably did a better job than their worthless ass.
If someone doesn’t want to be in the Military, then the Military is better off without them.
Thank God we didn’t have the draft for the GWoT, or a lot more Soldiers would have died because the “poor little me’s” didn’t want to be there.
Since I was born, exactly 50% of all Presidents (Reagan thru Trump) have ever served. The three that served were all Republicans, two of the three that didn’t were Democrats, and the last one to not serve is the first Republican.
If any single one of the Democrat front-runners takes office in 2020, the number of Presidents who served will be reduced to 43%.
The number of sitting Presidents who have never served in the Military is going to continue getting higher, not lower.
The amount of people who were alive during the draft are getting fewer and farther between, just like the relevance of bringing up a President’s prior service.
It’s one thing to use legal means to avoid the draft. Even though it was terribly biased toward the well off, the college deferment was legal. Avoiding it by illegally going to Canada was wrong IMO. I’m just old enough that I was worried about the draft, but planned to go if called. As it turns out the war ended and I joined anyway.
The people who went and fought when called did what was required. Personally, I have my doubts that most Viet Nam era vets don’t care about draft dodgers.
That being said, by far the worst are the ones who dodged it and are now cheering the wars in middle east and even worse denigrating those who did serve. Yet another reason why the sociopath in the white house deserves my utter contempt.
I have a low tolerance for Vietnam draft dodgers, particularly the super hawks like Rush, Dick Cheney and Trump and the valor thieves like Richard Blumenthal.
Maybe that’s because I was one of the poor dumb suckers who got drafted in 1966 and went.
A bunch of strings and a bunch of lies. Getting drafted and failing to report. Joining the Reserves and failing to report etc
At least Blumenthal did the Reserves for 8 years, even if not deployed that is a lot better than many others in his circle. But he should have never implied he went to Vietnam.
Yeah my father never told ANY stories, it was always a remarkable contrast with my grandfather (WWII 82nd Airborne; paratrooper) who may have not given gritty details, but was always proud. For my father it was always a dark secret.
Implied? I think he outright lied.
“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,”
“when we returned from Vietnam, I remember the taunts, the verbal and even physical abuse we encountered,”
I grew up surrounded by WWII veterans. It seemed the more one talked about their service the less combat they actually saw.
Yeah, unfortunately for them they got their Purple Hearts. Both were in the ■■■■■ Neither were open or ever candid, only speaking to the tone.
Fits the pattern.
Was your grandfather in Normandy?
Dropped into the bulge, was by himself for 24 hours.
Crap, I’m glad he made it home.
Only wish I had been old enough to really talk with him about it before he passed. He was 18 at the time, he lied about his age to volunteer.
There is a difference between talking about service and talking about combat, Bob.
Always the snide comment, huh?
Not snide at all Bob. A lot of guys will talk about training, funny things that happened, etc. But won’t talk about combat.
My apologies if I came across as snide, that was not my intention.
No need to question Trump’s loyalty to the American people, he is the Commander in Chief now and he’s working for free doing a greater job then Obama ever did.
Avoiding the draft does not automatically negate one’s loyalty to the country and I did not question his. It’s a fact that Trump avoided the draft five times and I simply referred to that fact. As to him doing a greater job as president, that is very much a matter of opinion.
