Clinton V's War Hero Round 3

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Thursday March 20, 2008 11:29 by Jim

Could the US Presidential election be a rerun of 1992 and 1996?

We've been here before.
In 1992 Bill Clinton who never served in the military or fired a shot in anger challenged President George H W Bush, who was one of the youngest US fighter pilots of World War 2 and who was shot down and rescued at a sea while others who participated in the same attack were captured and cannibalised by the Japanese.
In 1996 Bill Clinton challenged Bob Dole, a veteran of the the WW2 Italian campaign who was wounded by a German machine gun and waited for nine agonising months to be evacuated to an American hospital leaving his right arm paralyzed preventing him from shaking hands, a serious disability for a politician.

Smug McCain supporters claim that they have the entire race sown up.
They believe that while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sling mud at each other they are exhausting themselves for the real contest following the party conventions and the formal selection of the Presidential candidates.
McCain is a genunine hero and all-American patriot - his grandfather and father were admirals and continuing the family tradition he joined the US Navy and became a fighter pilot flying scores of missions over Vietnam. He narrowly escaped death when an explosion and fire on the USS Forrestal destroyed several fighter aircraft and killed 134 sailors.
Most famously his Skyhawk was shot down hit by a SAM over Hanoi and he was captured by the North Vietnamese, beaten with rifle butts and bayoneted. He was tortured and interrogated and denied medical attention at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," endured two years of solitary confinement but refused repatriation until all the men captured before him we released first. After enduring further physical and psychological torture he finally agreed to sign a forced confession of war crimes.
Released in 1973 he later entered public office was elected Senator.

However the issues in this election are not McCain's war record no more than heroic service of Bush Snr or Dole.

The issues are the competancy of a politician to tackle the issues that concern American voters in the present and the future.

The only previous genuine war hero to George Bush who served in the office of President was John F. Kennedy, his torpedo boat PT-109 was sunk by a Japanese destroyer before he rescued wounded crewmen, whose political inexperience brought the US and USSR to the brink of all out nuclear war, who brought the US into the Vietnam conflict and failed to deal comprehensibly with the issues of racism in the US.

George H W Bush humiliated Saddam Hussein but presided over a crippling recession and inept handling of racial divisions that produce the 1992 riots.

Had Bob Dole won in 1996 there was a possibility he would be re-elected in 2000. One can only imagine with dread his handling of the 9/11 crisis and subsequent War on Terror.

Ex-military veterans do not good President's make.