Rather Producer Mapes Knew Dubya Volunteered For Duty In Vietnam

It may be a dated issue, but new information has been retrieved by Bernard Goldberg that puts further in disrepute the story by then CBS Reporter Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes that indicated George W. Bush dodged the Vietnam draft by finagling his way into the Texas Air National Guard. Well the truth is now coming out that not only did Bush NOT dodge the draft, but instead that he actually volunteered to go to Vietnam!!!

After all the attacks Dubya took, I just felt it was important for people to know the truth and maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t as bad as the media made him out to be. See clip from Bernard Goldberg’s site below.

Until now, the controversy over the Rather/Mapes story has centered almost entirely on one issue: the legitimacy of the documents – a very important issue, indeed. But it turns out that there was another very important issue, one that goes to the very heart of what the story was about – and one that has gone virtually unnoticed. This is it: Mary Mapes knew before she put the story on the air that George W. Bush, the alleged slacker, had in fact volunteered to go to Vietnam.

Who says? The outside panel CBS brought into to get to the bottom of the so-called “Rathergate” mess says. I recently re-examined the panel’s report after a source, Deep Throat style, told me to “Go to page 130.” When I did, here’s the startling piece of information I found:

Mapes had information prior to the airing of the September 8 [2004] Segment that President Bush, while in the TexANG [Texas Air National Guard] did volunteer for service in Vietnam but was turned down in favor of more experienced pilots. For example, a flight instructor who served in the TexANG with Lieutenant Bush advised Mapes in 1999 that Lieutenant Bush “did want to go to Vietnam but others went first.” Similarly, several others advised Mapes in 1999, and again in 2004 before September 8, that Lieutenant Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam but did not have enough flight hours to qualify.

ADDENDUM: I felt I have to add that not only does this story raise my opinion of George Bush, but it just makes me look at the MSM, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes with even more skepticism. Lying and hiding to get yourself ahead and dragging others backwards is lower than a snake’s belly IMHO. The days of reading a newspaper and trusting the words implicitly are long behind us.