Swift Boats, Shot Down Fighters, and Unqualified Candidates

Swiftboating has been resurrected and again has raised concerns or at least questions.

Senator Barack Obama separated himself from a statement made by retired General Wesley Clark, while Senator John McCain went on the defensive against this comment. General Clark made several statements on the “Face the Nation” show on CBS’, but I must admit that that most memorable comment was “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”  Although, rude, unnecessary, and possibly outright stupid, there is a valid question raised here. 

The real point of the conversation or the real question raised is:  “Does his individual military experience make him any more qualified to be president of an entire country?”

I have to say that in reality the question raised here for me is:  “Does any of the past actions of either of these candidates demonstrate their readiness to be president?”

From what I have seen the only thing that we have established about these candidates is that they may be schizophrenic and are terrible at choosing supporters to work with their campaigns. 

The person who is elected will as part of the job be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States. 

What is there on Senator Barack Obama’s resume that qualifies him for this job?  Absolutely nothing!

On the other hand Senator John McCain at least was a military officer.  I do have a personal problem with his service however. 

He is in my view a great war hero and a better man than most for having lived through what he lived through in Viet Nam.

The problem I have is one of expecting more from the troops than you expected of yourself.  When I was a child (in a family where every man served this country during wartime for several generations) I was told that a good leader is on who does not expect more from his subordinates than he or she expects of him or herself.

When I was in the military I was taught that if captured, I was to kill myself rather than to talk or give in to the enemy.  The whole “Death Before Dishonor” thing!  I was repeatedly fed the fact that I was to remain “always faithful” (Semper Fidelis) to God, country and corps even if it meant killing myself rather that to be dishonored.

The truth is that I am not convinced I could have done this and think few could.  The thing is I was raised to believe in an ideal.  That ideal is the president should be the best of the best particularly in terms of military service.

While a great man, I do not think it fair to demand such service from those that are under you when you could not do it yourself. 

What I am getting at is that I do not believe that either candidate is even close to qualified to command our armed forces, but I do think that Senator McCain is far more qualified as he at least has some experience.

As a side note, I have to add that one of the biggest atrocities that has happened to our men and women in the armed forces was that a man who dodged the draft was allowed to be Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.  This actually was one of the main reasons that I left the military.   Think that president (Bill Clinton) was a slap in the face of all of those who have served and those that have died for our nation.

That all being said I think this is a valid discussion, but the punches needs to remain above the belt.  The candidates themselves are trying to give the appearance that they are above the fray and not participating in such tactics, but their respective camps are not so “above the fray.”

It seems that that role of Commander-in-Chief has been largely neglected over the past several presidencies and for the past several years.  This presidency, far more than most, will need a person of this understanding and that is a motivation to all of those asked to be willing to give their lives to do whatever their country asks of them through the president.  That means even if they do not agree with the battle, war, conflict, police action, or whatever.

P.S.  Just to make all of this a little more odd a group of Republican senators and military officers jumped to Senator McCain’s defense  on a phone call arranged by Senator McCain’s campaign.  This group stated that these statement s were “Complete silliness,” “Beyond comprehension,” “A very indecent thing,” and so on.  I suppose they wanted to make sure that we all know that the Republican Party is completely opposed to Swiftboating. 

The funny thing here is that the Democrats were quick to point out that one of those military officers, retired Air Force Colonel, Bud Day, was actually on the “Swift Boat” add that coined the phrase Swiftboating.  For those that don’t remember, those were the adds that cast doubt on the medals earned by Democratic candidate John Kerry in Viet Nam.  Now one of the people from that add is crying foul saying that these statements are “A very indecent thing”

Again, the McCain campaign has demonstrated that as a campaign, there is terrible problems in picking people to support Senator McCain publically.

I guess you have to love the irony.