The Politics of Heroism

I'm surprised to see this response by Eleanor Clift.

This is not a point where you want to be at, but General Clark merely repeated Schieffer's comment and stated the obvious. I was irked this morning while watching This Week in Politics on CNN by their painting of Clark's subsequent explanation as a backpedal.

Clark, to his credit, DIDN'T TAKE IT BACK, as well he shouldn't! He said McCain was his hero and praised him for his service but since he didn't say anything wrong, no apology was needed. Personally, I want to see more Democrats with Clark's guts who refuse to give in to the fake outrage of the right. If McCain really gave a damn about people's service, he wouldn't have been so half-hearted in his defense of Kerry when his service was dragged to the mud and spat on.

This is not a position anyone wants to be at, but nothing wrong was said. If Obama is smart, he'd ask Clark to be his VP.

Since little is really known about the "true" Obama, we can only judge him based on his associates, his advisers, his "inner core" campaign supporters.
It's the inner core that sheds the most light on where Obama would take this country. 90% of his advisers are the same ones who destroyed our economy, our educational system, our sovereignty over the past 35 years.

Brzezinski - by instating the Shah of Iran, created the Islamic Movement of 1979. His policies resulted in the birth of the Taliban and al Aqueda. As a CFR member, he also is a co-founder of the Trilateral Commission.

Tom Daschle - lobbyists padded his pockets while he was in office. His wife was a paid lobbyist for the airline industry. The airlines benefited from 9/11, as their fledging business was bailed out immediately after 9/11 - under Daschle. Strong supporter of Free Trade, World Trade Organization, NAFTA, CFR member. Currently a paid lobbyist for Columbia.

Durbin - strong supporter of NAFTA and World Trade Organization.

John Kerry - CFR member, strong supporter of NAFTA and World Trade Organization.

Ted Kennedy - strong supporter of NAFTA and World Trade Organization. Implemented standard public education, whereby Asian students learn more than most of our students. (Dumbed-down)

Sam Nunn - CFR member, strong supporter of NAFTA and World Trade Organization.

Gary Hart - CFR member. On 9/12/2001 stated that "Now is the time for the United States of America to join the New World Order." The buzz word for NWO is now GLOBALIZATION.

John D Rockefeller - CFR member, supporter of World Trade Organization. He is the ONE who insured that the new FISA bill included complete immunity for the telephone companies and will extend warrantless wiretapping until 12/31/2012.

I would dare say you would have to blind or dumbed-down to think that Obama would take us down a different path. Under him and his core advisers, we will be going down the steep path to Globalization and will no longer be sovereign.

How could anyone, withhold support for a Jr. Senator, with connections and friends like this???

First it was convicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko; then it was Nadhmi Auchi; then it was William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn; then it was Rashid Khalidi; then it was Rev. Wright, Rev. Meeks, Rev. Otis, Father Pfleger and the TUCC; then it was Louis Farrakhan; then it was the New Black Panthers; then it was Aiham Alsammarae; then it was Jodie Evans; then it was Hamas; then it was Hugo Chavez; then it was Fidel Castro; then it was Muammar al-Gaddafi; then it was North Korea's Kim Jong-Il; then it was the Communist Party USA; then it was ___; and then it was ___.

NOBAMA!!!

A Vain, Pompous, Brown-noser
Meet the Real Gen. Clark
Anyone seeking to understand the bloody fiasco of the Serbian war need hardly look further than the person of the beribboned Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley K. Clark. Politicians and journalists are generally according him a respectful hearing as he discourses on the "schedule" for the destruction of Serbia, tellingly embracing phrases favored by military bureaucrats such as "systematic" and "methodical".
The reaction from former army subordinates is very diffe

rent.
"The poster child for everything that is wrong with the GO (general officer) corps," exclaims one colonel, who has had occasion to observe Clark in action, citing, among other examples, his command of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood from 1992 to 1994.
While Clark's official Pentagon biography proclaims his triumph in "transitioning the Division into a rapidly deployable force" this officer describes the "1st Horse Division" as "easily the worst division I have ever seen in 25 years of doing this stuff."
Such strong reactions are common. A major in the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado when Clark was in command there in the early 1980s described him as a man who "regards each and every one of his subordinates as a potential threat to his career".
While he regards his junior officers with watchful suspicion, he

customarily accords the lower ranks little more than arrogant contempt. A veteran of Clark's tenure at Fort Hood recalls the general's "massive tantrum because the privates and sergeants and wives in the crowded (canteen) checkout lines didn't jump out of the way fast enough to let him through".
Clark's demeanor to those above is, of course, very different, a mode of behavior that has earned him rich dividends over the years. Thus, early in 1994, he was a candidate for promotion from two to three star general. Only one hurdle remained - a war game exercise known as the Battle Command Training Program in which Clark would have to maneuver his division against an opposing force. The commander of the opposing force, or "OPFOR" was known for the military skill with which he routinely demolished opponents.
But Clark's patrons on high were determined that no such humiliation should be visited on their favorite. Prior to the exercise therefore, strict orders came down that the battle should go Clark's way. Accordingly

Attention Holy Roller - John McCain was not born in the United States of America. He was born in Panama, the frightened congress, judiciary and media have chosen to overlook it in favor of extending the unconstitutional courtesy to Mr. McCain. Mr Obama has no such limitation - he is an American.

People are missing the point.

McCain's combat and leadership experience in the military does not qualify him to be president. He has never claimed that it does. All it means is that he has survived and triumphed over terrible adversity. He knows that, so does Obama, and so do most people with a brain.

Clark did a poor job of making that point, and was arguably silly to even try. McCain, however, knows good and well that Clark wasn't disparaging his military record, but McCain is using this dust up to claim that Clark is trying to disparage his record, his sacrifice, and his patriotism, and by extension, so is Obama.

This isn't true, and McCain knows it. In the final analysis, it is McCain who is blowing this out of proportion and playing politics as usual.

That McCain is a hero is indisputable. That he is a warrior is indisputable. That these very things that make him a good man also make him a viable presidential candidate IS disputable, as it the notion that what we need is a warrior, when what we need is a statesman.

That is the point.

I thinkk I'd have to disagree with you here. Actually McCain is running on his experience in the Military. Its really all he has going for him. But what I'd really like to know is, why was Mc Cain due to be released from the Hanoi Hilton in 5 years? Was that a prison sentence? Do prisoners of war just get out after the time stated or have they given enough information to the enemy to be released? Did he not come home because he couldnt face the nation just yet? I may not have my facts actually straight, but you get the gist.

Audie Murphy was the ultimate war hero. He was the most decorated soldier in World War II. There was never any indication that a war hero has presidential qualities. Subsequent to the war, we elected General Dwight David Eisenhower who had been in charge of all of the troops in Europe including those of Great Britain. He was essentially put forward as a candidate for his ability to competently handle large and complex systems, similar to our government.
Mc Cain's heroism consists of being an ordinary jet pilot with no experience in running anything much more than one airplane, being shot down, then being tortured and imprisoned for five years. He is an honest man and he does not allege that any of this qualifies him to be president. His supporters constantly erroneously refer to this experience as heroism which qualifies him to president over a man who has not been imprisoned and tortured.
If the Republican Convention tries to use movies of these acts of "heroism" to aggrandize his candidacy, then he will join John Kerry, whose campaign tried to make him seem presidential for running a fast boat in combat with bullets flying, as a cardboard heroic fraud, same as Kerry, and his party will richly deserve the sweet revenge of those who do this to their candidate.
I resent the brandishing of war experiences by anyone as some sort of an asset in life. The job is one where killing of people is necessary and of necessity innocent ones occasionally killed alongside the enemy. Try to drop napalm out of a supersonic jet airplane and avoid killing innocent people. No one is proud of this. This is why the Greatest Generation came home and remained silent about their experiences in war.
We need to stop this crap of aggrandizing the killing of people in war. Now. If it has to happen, do your duty. Go doit. Then come home and shut up about it.

Getting shot down is not the measure of the man. What he did with the succeeding hand that he was dealt -- 5 years as a POW -- is his measure. Everyone is free to judge for themselves whether he exhibited tenacity, loyalty and a sense of duty -- and whether those qualities are useful qualifications for a president. To say that his POW experience is not relevant is pure sophistry. And no one should know that more than Gen. Clark.