Op-Ed Columnist: Bush’s Duty, and Privilege By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

James Moore, an author and former Texas television reporter who has spent many years following the fortunes of George W. Bush … explores the murky circumstances surrounding President Bush’s service in the National Guard in the late 60’s and early 70’s in a book that is soon to be published called “Bush’s War for Re-election.” This issue remains pertinent because it foreshadowed Mr. Bush’s behavior as a politician and officeholder: the lack of engagement, the irresponsibility, and the casual and blatantly unfair exploitation of rank and privilege.

Mr. Bush favored the war in Vietnam, but he had the necessary clout to ensure that he wouldn’t have to serve there. He entered the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the war in 1968 by leaping ahead of 500 other applicants who were on a waiting list.

Mr. Bush was eventually assigned to the 147th Fighter Group (later to become part of the 111th Fighter Interceptor Group), which Mr. Moore described in his book as a “champagne” outfit. “The ranks,” he said, “were filled with the progeny of the wealthy and politically influential.”

So here’s the thing: After strolling to the head of the line, and putting the Guard to the considerable expense of training him as a pilot, Lieutenant Bush didn’t even bother to take his duties seriously. He breezed off to Alabama to work on a political campaign. He never showed up as required to take his annual flight physical in 1972, and because of that was suspended from flying.

This cavalier treatment of his duties as a Guardsman occurred as thousands of others were being killed and wounded in Vietnam…. Having escaped the horror of the war himself, one might have expected Lieutenant Bush to at least take his duties in the National Guard seriously. …

Mr. Bush has been nothing if not consistent. He has always been about the privileged few. And that’s an attitude that flies in the face of the basic precepts of an egalitarian society. It’s an attitude that fosters, that celebrates, unfairness and injustice. …

Mr. Bush’s experience in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam years is especially relevant today because it throws a brighter spotlight on who he really is. He has walked a charmed road, with others paying the price of his journey, every step of the way.

[photo from Salon.com News | Bush’s missing year By Eric Boehlert]