Whistle Stop, I agree with some of what you have said, particularly in regards to whether or not a politician running for public office served in Vietnam or not.

However, I must disagree that the questions surrounding Bush's service in the National Guard ARE an issue to me. Not because he did joined the Guard to stay out of Vietnam, but because of the ways he has obfuscated and possibly lied about his service and his service records over the years. Even in today's White House briefing, Bush's press secretary admitted that no one who served with Bush in Alabama or Texas National Guards, has been found that will come forward to say they served with him. The only officials who were able to answer the question definitively of whether Bush showed up for active duty(versus inactive duty, which is also a legitimate and legal form of duty) when he was required to do so, were the commanders of the two bases to which Bush was assigned. They have both said that they never saw him.

That is pretty damning for Bush, IMO, and does support the claims that Bush received special treatment while in the Guard. There are also no official records of why Bush was grounded.

The two commanders who said they never saw Bush on active duty on their watch during the time he was required to be there, are now both deceased.

I feel Bush has plenty to answer for regarding this matter.

I also feel Bush has plenty to answer for regarding his justifications for pre-emptively attacking Iraq. Considering that the UN has been working for the last 50 years to broker non-aggression treaties to prevent just such military actions between nations, and the extent to which he has now debilitated us internationally, I feel Bush hasn't even begun to answer for his decisions.

And don't get me going on the Bush administration's obstruction of the work of the 9/11 committee.

Or the exposing of a CIA agent by his White House enforcers to silence his critics.

This administration is simply the most destructive one I've witnessed in all my 65 years--and that is truly saying something, considering I lived through the McCarthy era and Nixon/Watergate era.