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| Sunday, 15 February 2004 |
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Beleaguered Bush releases more military records Hoping to banish a controversy clouding his 2004 reelection bid, President George W. Bush on Friday ordered the release of all personnel records from his military service at the height of the Vietnam war. The White House made public a 2.5-inch thick stack of documents from Bush's time in the Texas National Guard in its latest effort to quash charges from Democrats that he shirked his duties during a period in 1972-1973. In addition, small groups of reporters were taken to the Roosevelt Room of the presidential mansion to review the president's contemporaneous medical records, which aides said would not to be released. Bush avoided combat in Vietnam by joining the Texas Air National Guard and training as a fighter pilot, but he has been dogged lately by doubts about his service during a period when he was temporarily transferred to Alabama. Supporters of the Democratic frontrunner, Senator John Kerry, happily fanned the flames, hoping to emphasize their candidate's status as a decorated and wounded Vietnam veteran and blunt Bush's self-portrait as a "war president." Recent opinion polls showed the president's credibility sharply eroded ahead of what aides acknowledge will be a tight race shaped in part by the failure so far to find the banned weapons at the core of the case for war in Iraq. Friday's disclosure came after several strategies for averting the threat to Bush's quest for a second term seemed to fail, leading the White House to reassess its approach. The White House had previously released payroll records that shed no light on what duties Bush performed, statements of points earned towards leaving the service, and even a dental exam from January 6, 1973, with a chart of his teeth, from the Alabama base. But while Kerry has not been shy about campaigning with fellow Vietnam veterans, whom he calls "a band of brothers," the president's aides never managed to produce an eyewitness to his time in the guard. Previously released records showed months-long gaps in Bush's service and revealed that he was suspended from flying in August 1972 after failing to take a required annual physical examination. Bush himself, in a rare hour-long television interview on Sunday, described how he left the service eight months early: "I was going to Harvard Business School and worked it out with the military." The president also counterattacked against critics who said there was no proof that he completed his Guard duty, saying: "They're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report." A new Washington Post/ABC television poll of registered voters released Friday showed Kerry defeating Bush 52 percent to 43 percent in hypothetical election held now. The survey also found that 54 percent believe Bush either lied or exaggerated about pre-war intelligence he said proved Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Only 52 percent said they believed Bush to be "honest and trustworthy," down seven points since late October and 19 points lower than the summer of 2002. The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. White House spokesman Scott McClellan had accused Bush's critics of "trolling for trash for political gain" and denounced questions about his military service as "gutter politics." (AFP) |
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