The Red, White and Confused

Last week Barack Obama delivered a speech on patriotism in Independence, Mo. It was a fairly innocuous speech filled with various feel-good expressions, but it was the context surrounding the speech that proved to be the real story for this 4th of July campaign season.

The day before Obama’s tightly scripted appearance in Independence, Mo. a surrogate for the Obama Campaign, Gen. Wesley Clark, appeared on the CBS program “Face the Nation” and launched a shameless attack on John McCain:

“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

Clark, who was a Democrat candidate for president in 2004, tried to clarify what he meant but only dug himself in deeper. He said McCain didn’t “understand [taking] risks” or “matters of being held accountable.” He belittled McCain’s Vietnam experience by saying he “wasn’t in a wartime squadron.” I would think that’s highly debatable since McCain was shot down on a dive bombing combat mission over Hanoi by an enemy who held him captive for 5 1/2 years. Let’s review, shall we?

In 1967, after requesting a combat assignment as a naval aviator, McCain was flying his 23rd mission in an A-4E Skyhawk when a Russian-made missile sheared off one of his wings. He ejected out of a tailspin from 4,500 ft. breaking his leg and both his arms in the process. He landed in a small lake and almost drowned before struggling ashore with crippling injuries and the weight of his gear. After a few moments, he was greeted by a group of North Vietnamese communists who smashed his shoulder with a rifle stock and stabbed his foot with a bayonet. The captors denied him medical treatment compounding the trauma of his injuries McCain spent the next 5 ½ years in a North Vietnamese prison, (nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton” by American POWs). There he endured incredible hardships and withstood torturous interrogations that would make Abu Ghraib look like a picnic. He was routinely bound with ropes and beaten by the communists. In further attempts to break his will, they placed him in solitary confinement for over two years. During his captivity he was given an offer to be repatriated but bravely refused, preferring instead to remain with his fellow soldiers. McCain, to this day, carries debilitating wounds resulting from this brutal treatment.

McCain’s experience, far from being a detriment, seems to me to be an asset for leadership. His perseverance and commitment, on the part of his country, would appear to be worthwhile qualifications by anyone’s standard of leadership.

Clark hasn’t backed down from his attack and continues to question the integrity of John McCain. It’s interesting to note that President Clinton and Defense Secretary William Cohen removed Clark from his NATO leadership position in Kosovo exactly because of bad judgment. Clark’s reckless actions almost caused WWIII when he ordered a British General to shoot Russian troops upon an unauthorized landing at the Kosovo airport. According to Gen. Hugh Shelton, “the reason [Clark] came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues,” the very things Clark now claims to be an authority on.

To complete the charade, another Obama surrogate, Sen. Jim Webb, appeared on MSNBC’s “Countdown” the same day, right on cue, warning Republicans to avoid using military service in politics and instructing John McCain to “calm down.”

What did McCain say? Did he fly off the handle in responding to Clark? No, McCain had made a very simple statement declaring the comments “unnecessary” and unhelpful because they don’t “reduce the price of a gallon of gas by one penny.”

So, Webb’s choice of words begs the question: was this a set-up? It would appear so. A few days later Bill Clinton awkwardly got himself into the debate saying, “anybody who’s ever been a POW for any length of time, you will see…go along for months or maybe even years, and then something will happen and it will trigger all those bad dreams and they will come back.”

Most folks are aware that McCain has a temper and I believe this was a planned strategy on the part of the Obama campaign attempting to neutralize McCain on military and patriotism issues because this is where they feel the most vulnerable.

Whatever you may think of McCain’s other qualifications for president, his wartime sacrifice should be respected and honored. While others may strive to satisfy their own patriotic qualifications, let us not impugn someone like John McCain who’s very actions define what it means to be a patriot. (send comments to WFC83197@aol.com, or mail to POB 114, Jacksboro, TN 37757)