Index to Old Hickory's Weblog posts on Kerry's and Bush's military records

I thought, for my own convenience if nothing else, I would create an index to the posts I've made about the service records of Bush and Kerry.  Thanks to Kerry's counterattack of this past week, we're seeing another media feeding frenzy over it now.

This would all be playing differently if our sad excuse for a press corps had delved into Bush's record as they should have during the 2000 campaign.  Or if they had stuck to some serious investigative reporting on it after the feeding frenzy of this past February.  Why didn't they? 

The answer Joe Conason gave to that question in relation to the 2000 campaign holds also for the reaction of our sad excuse for a political press corps in the easy ride they've given Bush's campaign on the story so far.  From Conason's book Big Lies (2003):

Despite all the remarkable contradictions between his military record and his self-serving stories, and despite the plentiful evidence that he had shirked a year of his servcie and then lied about it, the "liberal media" never subjected Bush to the searing interrogations inflicted on [Dan] Quayle in 1988 and Clinton in 1992. Only the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, and a Democratic Web site bothered to explore the curious absences and lapses of duty that resulted in Bush's grounding after two years of fighter [pilot] training. Nobody insisted that he hold press conferences to explain himself. Pundits dismissed the issue when they mentioned it at all. The cultural assumption that Republicans are paragons of flag-saluting martial virtue is rarely challenged, regardless of reality. (my emphasis)

I first started writing about the issue of Bush's military service back in January, when Michael Moore raised the issue at a Wesley Clark campaign event.  These ten numbered "Is Bush a 'Deserter'?" posts give the basics of the criticism of Bush's conduct in his National Guard (Texas Air Guard) service.

Is Bush a "Deserter"? (1) 01/30/04
Is Bush a "Deserter"? (2) 01/31/04 (three more posts follow in immediate succession)
Is Bush a "Deserter"? (6) 01/31/04 (four more posts follow in immediate succession)

The "Deserter" Issue 02/03/04
The AWOL Story Rolls On 02/05/04
"Torn Document" No Longer AWOL 02/09/04
AWOL feeding frenzy 02/12/04
Why the AWOL issue is dinging Bush 02/12/04
Still AWOL 02/14/04
Bush's flying career 02/16/04
Oberleutnant zur See John Kerry (1 of 2) 03/02/04
Rehash the Vietnam War? Bring it on! 03/06/04
Dirt-slinging's a-comin' (1 of 2) 03/07/04
Trashing Kerry on Vietnam: what are they thinking? 04/24/04

My posts on the latest round of attacks on Kerry's record began in August:

There they go again 08/07/04 (includes links to several Joe Conason exposes of the Swift Boat Liars group)
Swift Boat Liars' Cambodia song-and-dance 08/11/04
Swift Boat Liars embarrassed again 08/19/04
Swift kicks to the Swift Boat Liars for Bush 08/20/04

As I wrote in the 02/16/04 post, the three main question about Bush's Guard service remain: his service (or lack thereof) between May 1972 and May 1973; missing his flight physical and thereby giving up flying; and, his release eight months early.

While all three questions are potentially embarrassing for Bush, David Neiwert of the Orcinus blog has emphasized that the second of those issues is really the key one.  The Texas Air Guard spent around $1 million training Lt. Bush to fly.  By missing his 1972 physical, he forfeited his ability to fly, thereby drastically reducing his value to the service.  Why did he do this?  Was the Guard's response the same as in similar cases for Guard members who were not part of the Bush dynasty?

That's the real scandal is Bush's Guard record.  But our lazy political press, when they bothered to cover the story at all, mostly got bogged down in the secondary question of whether Bush was AWOL or not.  It's likely to happen again, too, because an obvious parallel to the testimony of those who served with Kerry is the painfully obvious lack of people who remember serving during the questioned AWOL period with the man who later became president of the United States.

Funny thing, for sure.  But ducking the physical and thereby flushing his $1 million flight training is still the real story they should be pursuing.