So where were the chickenhawk neocons during Vietnam anyway?

[Skidmore]

What were they thinking then? We know they didn't "dodge" the draft by running away or going underground. Were any of them active members of the peace movement? What did they do? Did they have any beliefs about conducting war then that translates into what they hold now? Or did they just sit around on bar stools then and argue that it is right for others to go? None of them appear to have any remorse for others having gone in their place. They are really unapologetic about avoiding service and don't ever appear to have a bad word to say against that war. I find it peculiar.

[JI7]

1. some of them pretended to oppose the war because they didn't want to go

but when they got too old to serve like Horowitz they turned around.

those with connections like Bush just didn't worry about it at all . he could support the war and not have to go himself because of his dad.

[arewenotdemo]

2. I think most of them had deferments of what kind or another

Marriage, children, grad school and anal cysts. That sort of thing. Not sure ANY of them actively protested the genocidal war in Vietnam.

Wolfowitz was in grad school, agonizing over his dissertation. I'm certain he would have served if not for that.

:sarcasm:

[pretzel4gore]

3. horowitz was a marxist...editor of 'Ramparts'

alot of them present day neocons were 'marxists' (which means socialism achieves power through calculated processes, i think) and sang kumbya iow were antiwar- in fact, the only leftists in history to sing kumbya probably were those counterculture era leftists like kristol, wolfwits, perle, lucianne goldberg (btw hi jonah!) and the plague of host others, who've since then seen that comforting the pig and afflicting the afflicted was better in that sensuous, boyfukking way the nazipoohs have always had....the piggers giggle at the way the left is accused of singing kumbya, when it was them and them alone who did that....too bad nixon didn't ratfukk them neocon assholes back in the day :(
read todd gitlin's 'the twilight of common dreams'...though gitlin has gone soft (ferchrissake, he has to know the stolen 2k election is background to the wtc debacle, upon which all the bush bs hinges, or else gitlin's has finally accepted his class status(?) and is making do)

[BlooInBloo]

4. One had "other priorities".

[Government Mule]

5. Bush's Wartime Service

If you'd like to read about Our Fearless Leader's wartime 'service' then might I suggest the Conservative Book Club's:

"Wartime Biography of George W. Bush: 30 Seconds over Birmingham"

It'll be out by Christmas.

[Skidmore]

6. People, you are misunderstanding my question...

I remember what I thought about the Vietnam war at the time. Even though I was a teenager with an incomplete political philosphy, I did have an opinion about the war. These guys did not sit in a vacuum, in an I-like-vanilla world. What goes into making a war monger like a William Kristol, a Rumsfeld, a Wolfowitz, a Perle, etc.? How do we get to this extreme position by people who didn't appear(excepting Rumsfeld because he was in the military at some point) to want to fight. Did they also want peace then? Or were the content to armchair quarterback because they were simply cowards? How do they get to a point that they are so certain that war is desirable and only solution to political problems.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. When they realise what it can do for their bank balance.

[tabasco]

9. They got paid off. Warmongering industries have a lot of ca$h

to throw around. These assholes are the guys that put money over country. Cheney is getting much richer because of the Iraq war for example. Cheney doesn't love this country, he is a coward who would never fight for this country. They are amoral ghouls who worship money. Some of us have principles that we hold dear. These clowns just worship Mammon and their own comfort. I think the money is the big difference. We have a whole array of multinational corporations that want the republicans in power. They funded the neocon takeover with massive propaganda.

[Toots]

7. I believe more people avoided the draft then actually were drafted

There were a multitude of ways to avoid the draft with the simplest being staying in college. One difference being most Liberals that avoided the draft also opposed it and the war while Conservatives said the war was great just don't send them....Hypocrisy was also a word used in the sixties...