(2004-09-08) -- A lawsuit filed by the Associated Press (AP) has pressured the federal government into releasing previously unseen transcripts of 1973 testimony by a young George W. Bush before a Senate panel investigating atrocities committed by stateside National Guardsman during the Vietnam era.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to give up his weekend for a mistake?" the young Mr. Bush asked the panel as he began to talk about his experience with fellow guardsmen who participated in the "Winter Weekend Warrior" investigation with Jane Fonda.

The investigation, Mr. Bush claimed, brought together 150 honorably discharged National Guardsman, many of them highly-decorated, who testified to atrocities committed both on and off base, "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

"They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do, Mr. Bush said. "They told the stories of times they had personally goofed off, skipped weekend duty, gone out drinking, short-sheeted a fellow guardsman's bed, telephoned local stores and asked if they had Prince Albert in a can, drove faster than the speed limit, used salty language in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot mailboxes and road signs for fun, raided the base commissary for Pop Tarts and generally ravaged the country side of South Texas."

President Bush, responding yesterday to persistent questions about the new revelations, said, "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it again as President of the United States...again."