John Kerry ought to shut up, make no mistake. His gaffe or joke or whatever the hell it was about the education level of soldiers in Iraq was just plain stupid.

But the sanctimonious response from so many Republicans is even harder to swallow. This operation in Iraq is a travesty perpetrated by too many men who dodged the draft or otherwise didn’t step up to the plate, but are raging hawks when it comes to sending today’s young people into harms way.

It’s worth revisiting the military records of some of our notable leaders of today and the not-so-distant past..

DEMOCRATS

Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71. David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968-72. Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72. Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army
journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade. Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam. Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII. John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V
V, Purple Hearts. Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea. Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star,
Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971-1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979-91.
Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons. Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars,and Soldier’s Medal.
Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and
Legion of Merit.
Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart. Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V. Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star. Pete Stark: Air Force 1955-57 Chuck Robb: Vietnam Howell Heflin: Silver Star George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII. Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy. Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953 John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters. Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

REPUBLICANS—and these are the guys sending people to war:
Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.

Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
Tom Delay: did not serve.
Roy Blunt: did not serve.
Bill Frist: did not serve. Mitch McConnell: did not serve. Rick Santorum: did not serve.
Trent Lott: did not serve.
John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business. Jeb Bush: did not serve. Karl Rove: did not serve.
Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. “Bad knee.” The man who attacked Max Cleland’s patriotism. Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve. Vin Weber: did not serve. Richard Perle: did not serve. Douglas Feith: did not serve.
Eliot Abrams: did not serve. Richard Shelby: did not serve. Jon! Kyl: did not serve. Tim Hutchison: did not serve. Christopher Cox: did not serve.
Newt Gingrich: did not serve. Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954-57) as flight instructor. George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non- combat roll making movies.
B-1 Bob Dornan: Consciously enlisted after fighting was over in
Korea. Phil Gramm: did not serve.
John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit,
Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve. John M. McHugh: did not serve.
JC Watts: did not serve.
Jack Kemp: did not serve. “Knee problem,” although continued in NFL
for 8 years as quarterback.
Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard. Rudy Giuliani: did not serve. George Pataki: did not serve. Spencer Abraham: did not serve. John Engler: did not serve. Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.