On three previous occasions, various groups and individuals have offered cash for proof that Bush fulfilled his responsibilities to the National Guard. On each occasion, the money has gone unclaimed.
Four years ago, a group of veterans in Texas offered $2,000 to anyone with any kind of evidence to bolster Bush’s claims about his Guard service. At the same time, a different veterans’ group in Alabama offered a $1,000 reward. Last year, Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau ratcheted the challenge up a bit, offering $10,000 to any witness in the hopes of putting the “AWOL story to rest once and for all.” So far, no takers.
Maybe a bigger cash reward will entice someone to come forward.
The founder of the group Texans for Truth said Tuesday that he is offering $50,000 to anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his service requirements, including required duties and drills, in the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972.
The group made the announcement as Bush was in Las Vegas, Nevada, to address the National Guard Association’s convention.
“Today would be a fine day for him to finally answer all the questions that have dogged him since he entered public life,” the group’s founder, Glenn Smith, said in a statement.
“Bush’s dishonesty about missing from service during Vietnam goes to the heart of his presidency. He was dishonest then just as he is misleading us about why we went to war with Iraq. He dodges responsibility then just as he dodges responsibility for Iraq today.”
I don’t imagine this money will be claimed. It’s overwhelmingly clear at this point that Bush simply didn’t do his duty to the military during a time of war. No matter how big the cash award, no one can come forward with proof that simply doesn’t exist.
And speaking of the AWOL story, the New York Times’ Nick Kristof had a good item today about why this controversy still matters, whether CBS was fooled by forgeries or not.
President Bush’s paramount problem with his National Guard years is not that he took shortcuts in 1972. The problem is that he still refuses to come clean about it.
[…]
[I]n 1972, something went badly wrong. My hunch is that Mr. Bush went through personal difficulties that he’s embarrassed to talk about today. In addition, Mr. Roome suggests that changes at the Texas air base were making it more difficult for junior pilots, so sometimes Mr. Bush’s only chance to fly was as a target for student pilots – not the most thrilling duty.
For whatever reason, Mr. Bush’s performance ratings deteriorated, he skipped his flight physical, he stopped flying military planes forever, he transferred to Alabama, and he did not report to certain drills there as ordered. The pilots I interviewed who were in Alabama then are pretty sure that Mr. Bush was a no-show at required drills.
The next year Mr. Bush skipped off to Harvard Business School. He still had almost another year in the Guard he had promised to serve, but he drifted away, after taxpayers had spent $1 million training him, and he never entirely fulfilled his obligations.
More than three decades later, that shouldn’t be a big deal. What worries me more is the lack of honesty today about that past – and the way Mr. Bush is hurling stones without the self-awareness to realize that he’s living in a glass house.
Good points all. The issue here is only tangentially related to whether Bush was irresponsible in 1972; it’s far more important that he’s lying about it in 2004.