Families to Confront Bush on Use of Guard

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard14sep14.story
THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Families to Confront Bush on Use of Guard
Protesters gather in Las Vegas, where president will speak today to National Guardsmen.
By Maria L. LaGanga
Times Staff Writer

September 14, 2004

When President Bush arrives in Las Vegas today to address a convention of National Guardsmen, a group of families will be there as well, intent on protesting the Iraq war and a president who they say used his Guard service to avoid combat.

The protest comes a week after a controversial report on "60 Minutes II" that renewed questions about Bush's National Guard record during the Vietnam era.

The demonstrators said they were not supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, but were trying to look after the interests of the country's guardsmen.

"We think the real issue now is the Iraq war, it's not the Vietnam War," said Charley Richardson, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, which organized the protest. "But we can't help notice the irony that a person who managed to avoid going to combat by joining the National Guard is now sending the National Guard into combat in a war based on lies."<snip>

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. "said they were not supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry"

just wait until Nov. 2 and be a supporter for a day. :)

[geek tragedy]

2. Quote of the week:

"But we can't help notice the irony that a person who managed to avoid going to combat by joining the National Guard is now sending the National Guard into combat in a war based on lies."

[Pirate Smile]

3. Interesting article. I hope they get some media coverage.

"My brother was the first National Guard from Pennsylvania to die since 1945," Zappala said. "He reminded us of it before he left — that members of the National Guard don't die in combat. But it's a different world, according to our president. Our National Guard are on the front lines."

Zappala said he believed his brother's death exemplified the missteps in the administration's handling of the war.

Baker spent seven years in the National Guard training stateside as a forward observer, someone who goes ahead of tank and troop lines to scope out missile strikes and help realign troop movements, Zappala said. But when he was deployed to Iraq, he was sent as convoy security — "nothing he was familiar with," his brother said — after being retrained for two months at Ft. Dix, N.J.

"Before my brother left, they suggested he buy his own flak jacket," Zappala said. "Many were wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets."

[NewYorkerfromMass]

5. 28 Pennsylvania reservists were killed in the 1st Gulf War

due to a scud missile hitting their barracks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_War

[Catfight]

4. You mean, there IS intelligent life in America that can connect the irony?