Is Dole a war hero? Then why did he evade the draft in 1942?

[BurtWorm]

Isn't it great to trash veterans? Thanks, Bush and GOP for "evelating the discourse." :eyes:


From Bob Somerby:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/


By the way, how many people know that Dole evaded the draft during World War II? It’s not that the press corps will ever discuss it. But in his widely-acclaimed 1992 book, What It Takes, Richard Ben Cramer described the way Dole chose the good life at college over the army—even after Pearl Harbor:

CRAMER (page 97): Bob Dole didn’t want to go to war. He was doing what he wanted, at KU, in the Kappa Sig house, doing what he never had time to do before: fooling around.
That’s the start of Cramer’s chapter 5. It was the fall of 1941, and Dole was a fresh-faced freshman at Kansas. Cramer picks up a bit later:

CRAMER (pages 97-98): Before he left in December, Dole was elected vice president of Kappa Sigma. In his first term! But with all the new things he was trying that year, something had to slip: his grade point slid below the gentleman’s C, and he couldn’t make initiation. He was still a pledge in December, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Bob Dole’s bright new world started to change.

But that “bright new world” didn’t change very fast. Despite the start of World War II, Dole tried to hang on in Lawrence:

CRAMER (page 98): He hung on at KU as long as he could. Heck, people said the war might be over before they got to him. He ran track that year, finished the school year and started another. He played another season of football, then basketball, and more than a year after Pearl Harbor, Bob Dole was still at school. But it got to be obvious that every man was going. Pretty soon his draft board would turn up his number—they were already coming for Kenny, back in Russell—so Bob looked to his chances, and signed up for the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps. That way, he’d at least get to finish the term.

So there you see it, A Tale of Two Veterans. Dole, of course, is a famous war hero—for trying to stay out of World War II! By contrast, Kerry is a big sleazy goat—although he volunteered for Nam! And don’t worry. None of the pundits will ever tell you that Dole tried to sit out the famous “good” war. And no one will tell you how fake he was when he sat there making a fool out of Blitzer. Blitzer is paid to be played for a fool, and the rest of them know that certain things can’t be said. Last week, they let Cheney get away with the world’s biggest faking. This week, the pass goes to Dole.

[denverbill]

1. I heard Dole's wounds were self-inflicted too.

That's what I heard.

[BurtWorm]

2. Apparently so.

Also from a grenade he threw.

[amber dog democrat]

6. There was a handgrenade that was impropely thrown

and something about mistakes under German fire that got his radio operator killed and put others in danger who had to try to resuce him.

But this was WWII. It was way different than the Vietnam war. Few of the people with which I served in the Navy thought that war made any sense at all, and were glad to be on an old DD training Naval Reservists in Galveston.

[oasis]

3. In your face Bob Dole. Turns out that he's no better than the swiftboat

liars for Bush. Same scummy taint of illegitimacy.

[BurtWorm]

4. PS: Didn't WWII vets get irritated when Dole called it "a Democrat war?"

:eyes:

[denverguy]

5. headline is dishonest

can't evade draft if you haven't been drafted yet.
evading draft is not same as not voluteering.

[BurtWorm]

7. Truth is cheap in Election 2004.

It's whatever we want it to be. I want Dole to have evaded the draft, ergo, Dole evaded the draft.

[jtb33]

8. Evaded the draft?

Then how did he lose the use of his right arm? I thought he did join the service and was in WWII... (?)

[BurtWorm]

9. He did eventually join.

But if you were in college in WWII, you didn't have to go. Somerby's point is that Dole didn't rush to join, as many less fortunate sons did. He bided his time in school.

[jtb33]

10. Ah. Thanks. eom