Would Jeb Bush Have Preferred Jail to Doing His Patriotic Duty?

[nuhuh]

When the chips were down and it looked like Jeb was going to be drafted, his only courageous response was to declare that he would be a conscientious objector. He backpedaled of course and later said he would have gone but I believe Barbara at least she never lied. Clearly this needs to be examined before he gets the nomination this could be a colossal mistake to elect someone this ambivalent about personal courage.

A few weeks after graduation, on July 16, 1971, Bush filled out an index card on which he registered for the draft. (A copy of the card was obtained by the Globe under the Freedom of Information Act.) On the line requesting a contact, he listed his father, who continued to serve as Nixon’s United Nations ambassador: “Amb. George H. W. Bush, Waldorf Towers . . . New York City.”

Bush received a draft number of 26 on a calendar-based scale that went to 365, earning him a “1A” classification that meant he probably would have been drafted if the war continued at full pace.

But he avoided such a fate because the war was winding down — a fact for which some credit was due those of his generation who participated in protests that he had refused to join.
Bush’s mother, Barbara Bush, once told United Press International that Jeb had considered declaring himself a conscientious objector, adding that the family would have backed such a decision.
Bush said in the interview that he was “ambivalent” about the Vietnam War, and stood by a previous comment that he was “probably against” it, a view that he noted was shared by many of his peers. But he said he never considered being a conscientious objector.

“I registered. . . . I would have gone, I got the physical. I was declared 1A, and the draft was eliminated,” Bush said. Asked how voters considering him as a potential commander-in-chief might view his less-than-enthusiastic view of serving in Vietnam, Bush urged that it be seen in the context of that war and that time. “I was 18,” he said. “I’m 61 years old now.”

Unlike his brother George, who was a member of the National Guard from 1968 to 1974, Bush didn’t volunteer for any kind of military service. Nor did Bush follow his father and brother’s footsteps by going to Yale. He went instead to the University of Texas in Austin, majored in Latin American studies, graduated in an unusually speedy 2½ years, and married Columba.....Tumultuous four years at Phillips Academy helped shape Jeb Bush - Politics - The Boston Globe

 

[S.J.]

We didn't spend much time on Clinton's draft dodging, why should we examine Bush's? He's not gonna be the nominee anyway.