9.09.2004

Bush Military History Taking Shape

CNN ran an excellent story summarizing the events regarding Bush's recently released military documents.

"On this date I ordered that 1st Lt. Bush be suspended from flight status due to failure to perform to USAF/TexANG standards and failure to meet annual physical examination ... as ordered," says an August 1, 1972 memo by a superior officer, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who is now dead.

Killian said in the memo that he wanted a formal inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the flight suspension. No records have surfaced that one was ever conducted.


Conveninently, Killian is dead, so we can't ask him personally about this situation. He said in a number of other memos that he felt he was being pressured to lay off the Bush situation but also pointed out that he couldn't rate Bush, as Bush hadn't been around to rate. In spite of his easily read statements, the White House concludes that we can't infer what his words mean, since he's deceased:

Asked about Killian's statement in a memo about the military's investment in Bush, Bartlett told CBS: "For anybody to try to interpret or presume they know what somebody who is now dead was thinking in any of these memos, I think is very difficult to do."


Sure, but we don't seem to have much trouble figuring out what other dead people have meant in their writings, posthumously. For instance, I'd assume that Ghandi was proponent of war and that Martin Luther King felt that non-violent protest was the true way to peace. Certainly, I didn't ask those guys directly, they're dead, but I think their letters and statements back up my inferences quite nicely. In the same way, I feel I can say this much about Killians statement:

"Staudt has obviously pressured Hodges more about Bush," Killian wrote on August 18, 1973. "I'm having trouble running interference and doing my job -- Harris gave me a message today from Grp regarding Bush's OETR and Staudt is pushing to sugar coat it. Bush wasn't here during rating period and I don't have any comments from 187th in Alabama. I will not rate."


He didn't think much of those men who were pressuring him to give Bush a favorable rating and he didn't think much of Bush either. Anyone get anything else out of his statements?
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