Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush [Hardcover]

Glenn W. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2004

Ever since George W. Bush began running for public office in the 1990s, questions have been raised in the public eye about his service in the Air National Guard during the late 1960s and early 1970s -- when countless American soldiers (John Kerry among them) were serving heroically in Vietnam. By the time of the presidential race in 2000, it was clear that Bush's record of service contained several troubling gaps -- especially in the pe-riod between May 1972 and May 1973, when Bush was supposed to have transferred to the Alabama Air Na-tional Guard. In early 2004, as the election season heated up, the White House bowed to pressure and released a host of documents related to Bush's service, promising that this disclosure would put the matter to rest. Yet the documents raised as many new questions as they answered. Now, for the first time, the comprehensive written record of George W. Bush's military career -- more than 250 pages in all -- is presented in book form. In his introduction and commentary, longtime activist and author Glenn W. Smith, the founder of Texans for Truth, highlights such questions as: * How did Bush secure his acceptance into the National Guard, despite a long waiting list? Did his father pull strings, as some have alleged, to help him avoid the draft? * Why did Bush suddenly stop performing his Guard service from mid-1972 to mid-1973, as the documents show? * Did Bush truly perform sufficient duties to qualify for the honorable discharge he received, or was he given special consideration? * In the summer of 1972, Bush failed to appear for his required physical, and was consequently suspended from flying. Why didn't he take the physical? And why has he claimed that he kept flying for the Guard? * If Bush was present at the National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama, during the disputed period, why has no one accepted the White House's pleas to step forward and confirm that he was there? * And how do the now-discredited "Killian documents," first aired on 60 Minutes in September 2004, affect our understanding of Bush's Guard status?

UNFIT COMMANDER also tracks the Bush administration's efforts to defuse the controversy, from Bush's own claim that he "put in his time," to the White House's record of unyielding non-denial denials despite the persistent questioning of the press. And at the heart of the book are the documents themselves: from Bush's agreement that "failure to satisfactorily complete [full] pilot training will result in my being discharged," to his supervisor's statement that "Lt Bush has not been observed at this unit" during the critical period. A provocative exploration of this commander in chief's spotty record of personal military service, UNFIT COMMANDER is the place to start for anyone interested in getting at the truths of President Bush's character.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With a copycat title and dust jacket, readers might assume that this Leftist rejoinder merely imitates John O’Neill and Jerome R. Corsi’s Unfit for Command, which attacked Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, in part, for failing to release his complete Vietnam military service records. But former journalist and veteran Democratic consultant Smith (The Politics of Deceit), now executive director of Texans for Truth, does his counterparts one better by publishing more than 260 pages of the President’s available Air National Guard service records. Although the author avoids O’Neill/Corsi’s long-winded, crusading tone and professes "no personal hatred for George Bush," the book’s brief commentaries often lean toward outright disdain. Comparing the President to a GI Joe doll trotted out for meaningless photo ops, Smith disparages his leadership credentials, charging: "When millions of his fellow Americans were sent off to fight and die overseas, this modern faux-Alexander, psuedo-Caesar, and Neo-Napoleon managed to avoid military service in Vietnam." Name-calling aside, Smith asks tough questions about Bush’s stateside duty. In 1970, Bush earned accolades as a "dynamic outstanding young officer." But two years later, he was suspended from flying and was "not observed" at his Texas air base or, the author alleges, in Alabama, where he requested "equivalent duty." For Smith, this lightly documented posting "is a disturbing lapse in the historical record" comparable to the Watergate tapes’ 18-minute gap. White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s tortured stonewalling during press briefings about the records, detailed in nine transcripts here, further highlights the discrepancies, as well as the media’s inability to chip away at them. However, readers may balk at wading through old government documents, some of them indecipherable, that don’t offer new revelations. Ultimately, Smith lacks a smoking gun and, coming on the heels of the ONeill/Corsi book, this effort carries the taint of election year oneupmanship.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: ReganBooks; 1st edition (October 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060792450
• ISBN-13: 978-0060792459
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,913,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Documented Evidence Proves Bush Went AWOL, October 14, 2004

By 

cameron-vale "cameron-vale" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush (Hardcover)

During the Vietnam War, John F. Kerry bravely performed his patriotic duty and risked his life in combat. During the same war, George Bush took the cowardly route and went AWOL from the Air National Guard for nearly a year. Glenn W. Smith's eye opening UNFIT COMMANDER provides full documented evidence, including over 250 pages of service records, that exposes the whole, shocking truth about Dumbya's shameful military "career". Smith provides a richly detailed introduction and commentary, plus an extensive appendix, that puts the sordid tale into proper perspective. Smith even addresses the recent CBS memo "controversy" and how Republicans used the media to promote that ridiculous sham of a news story in order to divert the populace from the truth about the president's cowardly past. UNFIT COMMANDER is a well researched and important historical document. Any remaining undecided voters out there should read it ASAP.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Texan for Truth, December 8, 2004

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush (Hardcover)

As a Texan, I've taken a lot of good-natured ribbing from activist friends around the world.

They have told me that the best way to save the country would be to send Bush back to Texas. Because it ultimately implies that I and other Texans unanimously had supported Bush, this statement is a gross generalization. We actually had more reason to oppose his ascension than people from other states.

Plus, already knowing what Bush would do to America and the world if he (unlike the figurehead Texas Governor position) actually had power, provided all the incentive which I needed to vote against him in 2000 and 2004.

I and other alert Texans COULD NOT reside under the illusion that George W. Bush was somehow 'moderate'. We also knew that it did matter who actually won the presidential elections.

Mounting casualties in Iraq coupled with a skyrocketing federal deficit are affirming just how bad a Bush administration really is for the world. Amidst a growing number of 'Bush' supporter head-scratching and (actually) genuine bewilderment, we say "I told you so".

Continuing a pattern begun in early adulthood (to escape the Vietnam War he allegedly supported) Bush is a good-ole boy who depends on his family name and the monetary connections to avoid the situations which other Texans had to deal with.

Borrowing an `image' page from Ronald Reagan and his father's playbook, Bush intentionally cultivates an image of the 'rugged cowboy' who has made it on his own without any assistance.

In addition to downplaying the importance of government, the `cowboy' also is supposed to suggest that the president is a John-Wayne figure who will of course be able to protect the country against whatever is considered a threat.

Yet, the truth is that Bush is a naive and sheltered person who has never had to take responsibility for his actions.

This is why the Bush administration honestly is not bothered that they have lied to the American people, or are slaughtering American troops (who already face enough danger) with that same fabricated evidence about Iraq WMD's. As long as somebody else can go to war in their place, these people sincerely do not see a contradiction in their own actions.

Even if I have personally read the general gist of this book elsewhere, I was pleased to see it again. The truth always bears repeating.

The American people (and those in Texas) want to easily be comforted by 'security' images. Constant repetition of the real facts may thus be the very tool which encourages these swing voters to stop voting for the GOP---and/or recognize they are not the only Texans who hate Bush's war against the world. There are far more of us out here than the so-called liberal mass media has recognized.

Don't send Bush back to Texas, lock him up far, far away where he will never be able to hurt anybody again.

42 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smith Performs a Great Service, October 13, 2004

By 

William Hare (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take on George W. Bush (Hardcover)

While the Swift Boat Brigade that has attempted to besmirch the war record of John Kerry has been exposed as a group of malicious liars with the Navy providing the final stamp of approval on the Democratic presidential candidate's service, the record of George W. Bush in the Texas Air National Guard has been anything but exonerated.

Glenn Smith does a great service in exposing Bush as the same spoiled son of privilege who appears in the pages of Kitty Kelley's lengthy work on the Bushes. Smith zeroes in on Bush's service and, to quote Gertrude Stein, discovers that "there is no there there." Standing in the forefront is Bush's father, a prominent Texas congressman, who knows the right people and is prepared to make the right moves to help his son avoid active duty in Southeast Asia.

The revelations of Smith demonstrate once more the double standard and rank hypocrisy running rampant on the Republican right. The same people who turn and look the other way in silent embarrassment when Bush's National Guard service, and lack thereof, are mentioned are the same individuals who wanted to hang Bill Clinton from the nearest tree for being a "draft dodger" when he had a strong belief that the Vietnam War was wrong.

In the case of Bush he was a staunch anti-Communist who saluted Barry Goldwater's position of an aggressive bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. Despite Bush's strong professed beliefs that the Vietnam War was the right move and that the Communists needed to be stopped, he headed for the tall grass when the opportunity to put his actions behind his stated convictions arose.

At least there is some consistency in the Bush position. He did, after all, choose Dick Cheney as his vice president. Tough cold warrior Cheney also has solid credentials as a Chicken Hawk, having expressed himself strongly on behalf of the Vietnam War, then aggressively pursued four educational deferments. After the last deferment expired the man they would later call Mr. Gravitas did the only noble thing under the circumstances, he impregnated his wife, receiving a final deferment and saying goodbye for good to his Vietnam problems.

Bush had, after all, been a cheerleader at Andover Academy. Bush and Cheney proved to be effective Chicken Hawk cheerleaders as the sons of East Los Angeles and Watts were called on to serve on active duty in Vietnam.