BUSH’S BETRAYAL OF AMERICA’S
NATIONAL SECURITY
PART I: BUSH’S OBLIGATIONS DEFINED
An examination of the statutory basis of Bush’s “military career” and its implications for America in the 21st Century
[Note: Links to full text scanned versions of the
US Statutes (as well as other relevant statutes, and provisions from the Code
of Federal Regulations and Air Force policy manuals) cited in this article can
be found on the Source Documents
page.]
There
has been a great deal of controversy over George W. Bush’s military records,
and many questions have been raised as to whether he “fulfilled his duty.” But to date, the controversy has lacked a
key element: an understanding of what “fulfilling his duty” actually entailed.
Bush’s
obligations were primarily statutory obligations[[1]], that is, they were based on United
States Statutes[[2]]., The statutes:
1)
Define
the general requirements and obligations attendant upon Bush’s service in the
US Military
2)
Provide
the authorization for federal officials to further define those requirements,
and
3)
Provide
the authorization for federal officials to expand upon those requirements.
As
provided within the statutes, those obligations were:
1)
To
serve in the United States Military for six years
2)
To be
available for immediate call to active duty in his assigned position in the
event of a national security emergency for that six year period.
3)
To
fulfill the requirements of his assigned position by maintaining his
qualifications for that position, and participating in mandatory training with
his unit.
Bush did
manage to “serve” for six years. But he
failed to fulfill his other obligations, and did so willfully and deliberately,
THE STATUTORY BASIS OF
BUSH’S SIX YEAR OBLIGATION
Bush
signed up on May 26, 1968 for the Air Force Reserves under the provisions of 10
USC 651, 10 USC 511(d) (see Appendix II) and the Military Selective Service Act
(50 App USC 451-471)[[3]]
10 USC 651
established the six years of minimum service, (“shall serve for a total of six
years…”). This six year term was known
as Bush’s “Military Service Obligation”
(MSO).
The Selective Service Act provided
Bush with his draft exemption, while requiring that he serve “satisfactorily as
a member of an organized unit of such Reserves or National Guard in accordance
with section 270 of title 10 or section 502 of title 32…” (See below for these statutory provisions.)
This
section also provided for Bush’s permanent draft exemption if he maintained
“satisfactory service as a member of the Ready Reserve or National Guard….”
(It
should be noted that as a member of the Air National Guard, Bush was also a member
of the “Ready Reserve”—see below)
THE “READY RESERVE”—The statutory
basis for Bush’s obligation to be available for an immediate call to active
duty.
The “Ready Reserve” was the part of the Reserve forces
that were required to be available for immediate mobilization in the event of a
national security emergency declared by the President. (See 10 USC 268 at left.)
As
someone who was “required under law to serve in a reserve component”, Bush was
required to be a part of the “Ready Reserve” for the full six years of his
obligation. (See 10 USC 269 at left.)
THE ROLE OF RESERVE TRAINING
The
justification for the existence of the Air National Guard was predicated upon
its ability to provide “trained units and qualified persons available
for active duty in time of war or national emergency….” (See 10 USC 262, at left.).
When
Guard members failed to train with their units, or failed to maintain the
qualifications for their assigned role within the US Military, they were
betraying the purpose of the Guard itself.
READY RESERVE AND AIR NATIONAL GUARD TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
The
importance of training is demonstrated in the training requirements for
individuals who were part of the Ready Reserves. (See 10 USC 270, at left.)
All Ready Reservists were required to “participate in at least 48
scheduled drills or training periods [[4]] during each year and serve on
active duty for training of not less than 14 days … during each year.”
The
training requirements for members of the Air National Guard were consistent
with those of the Ready Reserve (see 32 USC 502, at left), but required at
least 15 days of active duty training.
Of particular note in the Air National Guard training requirements is
the emphasis on group training. Unlike
the Ready Reserve requirements, the ANG provisions require that members
“assemble” as part of a “company, battery, squadron [or] detachment” for the 48
periods of “drill and instruction” (e.g. “inactive duty training”), and the
active duty requirement also emphasized the “collective” nature of the
training.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS AND OTHER QUALIFICATIONS
In
addition to training requirements, Guard members were required to be physically
fit, and to receive physical examinations “every four years, or more often as
the Secretary concerned considers necessary.”
The “Secretary concerned” was also empowered to prescribe further
qualifications for “federal recognition” of officers who were in the Air
National Guard [[5]].
Many of
these additional requirements and qualifications became part of federal law
through the regulatory process, and are published in the Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR). The CFR also
contains most of the specific policies that were prescribed in order to carry
out the statutes cited above.
THE
BUSH FILES, AND THE STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS
The Bush
files contain a number of documents affirming that he was subject to the
statutory provisions cited above.
Bush’s
enlistment contract states that he had “a service obligation of six (6) years
under USC 651”.
Additionally, Bush signed a “Ready Reserve Service
Agreement” when he completed his pilot training, acknowledging his obligation
to be a member of the Ready Reserve until his Military Service Obligation was
completed.
Bush also signed a “statement of understanding” when he
enlisted, in which he acknowledged the nature and extent of his obligations to
the US Military under the statutes cited above.
DISCUSSION
The
statutes cited above demonstrate that the obligations that Bush undertook and
the qualifications he was required to maintain existed for one reason: to make it possible for the Air National
Guard to fulfill its Ready Reserve function
as a component of the United States Armed Forces. That function was to “provide trained units and qualified
individuals” for immediate
mobilization “at such…times as the national security requires.”
Each Air
National Guard unit was expected to be able to function as a unit, and to have
a specific number of individuals fully qualified for assigned positions within
America’s defense infrastructure at all times.
The purpose of the mandatory training requirements was to ensure these
expectations were met.
The
decisions regarding how many Air National Guard pilots were needed at any given
time was made at a national level.
Individual state Air National Guards were not empowered to decide for
the entire nation how many pilots were needed to ensure that the US was
adequately defended.
The
documents found in the Bush files demonstrate that Bush was fully aware of his statutory
obligations to the US Military, and the requirements attendant upon that
obligation. He fully understood that
his enlistment in the Air National Guard came with certain conditions, and that
it was his absolute duty to remain available for an immediate call to active
duty if America’s national security so required. He also fully understood that, in order to fulfill that
obligation, he was required to maintain his qualifications to perform as a pilot,
and that this included participating in prescribed training with his unit, and
proving that he was physically fit for the job by accomplishing a physical
examination each year.
Bush
attempted to get into a “Standby Reserve” unit[[6]] in May 1972, with one third of his
six-year obligation to be immediately available for active duty still
outstanding. (Reserve officers who were
part of the Standby Reserve were not required to train to maintain their skills
and qualifications, nor were they required to be immediately available for
active duty---; it
required an act of Congress to mobilize any members of the Standby Reserves.)
That
request was turned down, but with nearly nine months left of his Military
Service Obligation, Bush quit the Air National Guard in a second attempt to get
assigned to another Standby unit[[7]], and was (eventually) successful in doing so.
George
W. Bush repeatedly tried to get out of his Ready Reserve commitment and into a
Standby Reserve unit. He refused to take his mandatory flight physical. He
failed to train with his unit for all but three months of his last two years in
the US military and he refused to train as a pilot for his last two years. All
this demonstrates that George W. Bush did not fulfill his duty.
And
today he continues to lie about fulfilling that duty.
On April
26 2004, Dick Cheney challenged Kerry's fitness to be in charge of America's
national security[[8]].
Thirty years ago, the person who chose Cheney to be Vice President did not
give a damn about America’s national security, and the commitment he made to
the United States Armed Forces when he avoided serving in Vietnam by getting
into the Air National Guard.
\George
W. Bush’s refusal to acknowledge that fact shows us that he has not changed,
and that he is far more concerned with fulfilling his own personal agenda than
in keeping America safe. If anyone is
unfit to be in charge of America's National Security, it is not John Kerry, but
George W. Bush.
APPENDIX: THE “50 POINT” CLAIM
The
White House bases its claim that Bush “fulfilled his duty” on a memo (see
below) from a political hack named Albert Lloyd, who was in charge of personnel
for the Texas Air National Guard in the early seventies. (Lloyd conveniently did not disclose his
direct involvement in Bush’s military “career” in his autobiographical
statement at the end of the memo.)
In this memo, Lloyd states that because Bush received 50 “points” in
each of his last two years of service that Bush “completed his military
obligation in a satisfactory manner.”
There is no statutory basis whatsoever for this claim (nor is there any
basis in either the Federal Code of Regulations or Air Force policy.)
The
closest one can come to finding any statutory provision supporting Lloyd’s
false statement is 10 USC 1002, which states that the “secretary may not
prescribe a minimum of more than 50 points” as a qualification for a Reserve
officer to “be retained in active status.”
Bush’s
statutory obligations, of course, went well beyond staying in “active
status.” There was an “active status”
component of the “Standby Reserve”; but Bush was required to remain a part of
the Ready Reserve for the full six years.
It is
possible, of course, that the Texas Air National Guard imposed the requirement
described by Lloyd upon all of its members.
The statutes are far more flexible for those who had completed their
Military Service Obligation, or had served on active duty for 24 months, while
allowing for the setting of minimal standards for training for all
members. However, any such requirement
could not supersede the requirements found in the Statutes to which Bush was
subject, it could merely supplement those requirements.
APPENDIX
2: OTHER RELEVANT STATUTUTORY
PROVISIONS
10 USC 672 (mentioned in 10 USC 268, above) is the statutory provision
that authorizes Reserve units to be called to active duty during times of “war
or national emergency declared by Congress”.
This law applied to all reservists, whether “Ready Reserve” or “Standby
Reserve.”.
10 USC 673 (also mentioned in 10 USC 268, above) is the statutory
provision that authorizes Ready Reserve units to be called to active duty
during times of “national emergency declared by the President”.
Subsection (e) mentioned in 10 USC 269
cited above was not applicable to Bush, who had an “agreement to remain in the
Ready Reserve for a stated period.”
10 USC 672 also contains the provision demonstrating the importance of
Reservists being trained as part of a unit,…
…the provision which precludes any
immediate call to active duty for a member of the Standby Reserve…
…and the provision which makes it
clear that if need be, Ready Reservists have to be available for an immediate
call to active duty.
In addition to being liable for six years of service under 10 USC 651,
Bush was also liable for that term of service under the provisions of 10 USC
511. This particular statute is
important because many of the provisions found in the Code of Federal
Regulations refer to it specifically.