In response to letters concerning draft-dodging efforts of Mitt Romney during the Vietnam War, Romney received three educational deferments while he was a student and one “minister of religion” deferment prior to getting a high draft number in 1970. There is nothing misleading about those facts; he avoided the draft.
Many draft-age young men used many types of deferments to avoid Vietnam. I am a Vietnam veteran, but I hold no grudge against those who avoided service in Vietnam as long as they were consistent in their actions.
However, what is misleading about Romney is that at Stanford University, he demonstrated in favor of the war, and then did everything in his power to avoid service. In 2007, he said he was frustrated as a missionary not to be fighting alongside his countrymen. Well, he could have at anytime. The flip-flops started a long time ago.
It’s with this show of “courage” that he now postures as a hawk.
Romney would seem to have no qualms about sending young men to war when neither himself, his father, nor any of his five sons have ever served.
