We’ve all heard the Democrats complain that “chickenhawk” Dick Cheney got five draft deferments while he attended college in the early 60’s (before the introduction of combat troops to Vietnam). Well it turns out that Joe Biden got the same number of deferments, according to a Washington Times\/AP article;<\/p>\n
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, received five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War, the same number of deferments received by Vice President Dick Cheney, and later was disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager.<\/p>\n
Officials with the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, released Mr. Biden’s Selective Service records at the request of the Associated Press. Less detailed records were available from a National Archives facility in Philadelphia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just for a little clarification, the first combat troops were sent to the Vietnam War in 1965, four of Dick Cheney’s Cheney’s deferments were before that period and the final deferrment was a “hardship” deferment because his wife was pregnant in 1966. Out of Biden’s deferments, three were after the 1965 application of combat units to Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Despite Biden’s final deferment being for asthma, the article recognizes that Biden left that little fact out of his autobiography;<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified 1-Y and disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager,\u201d said David Wade, a campaign spokesman.<\/p>\n
In \u201cPromises to Keep,\u201d a memoir that was published last year and became an instant best-seller after he was tapped as Mr. Obama’s running mate, Mr. Biden never mentions his asthma, recounting an active childhood, work as a lifeguard and football exploits in high school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So even though asthma was a good excuse for Biden to avoid military service, it wasn’t enough to keep him from an active childhood. I know hundreds of people who served in the infantry with asthma who performed as well as any of the rest of us.<\/p>\n
Oddly enough, I don’t remember Republicans referring to Biden as a “chickenhawk” when he urged President Clinton to inject US combat troops into the Balkans, or when, in 2002, he declared that Saddam Hussein was a threat to our national security and our only option was to eliminate that threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"