Anyone agree with General Clark?

Question

When he says that getting shot down and being taken prisoner (in a war that killed half as many innocents as the Holocaust - even McCain has admitted he was a war criminal for voluntarily participating in Vietnam) does not automatically qualify a person to be president?

I guess you can call this a sort of poll...

Answer 1

Wesley Clark is one of seven or eight surrogates sent out by Obama to try to swift boat McCain.  Amusingly, this has the smell of backfire surrounding it.  Wesley Clark managed with one bullet to shoot himself in the foot and, simultaneously, wing the little messiah. Rather than asking whether McCain's military service qualifies him to be president; let's ask whether Obama's cowardly attempt through surrogates to discredit that service disqualifies Obama.  So, no, I do not agree with Wesley Clark, nor do you look any better for trying, however lamely, to call McCain a war criminal.  But thanks for reminding readers here at Y/A! how important it is to elect a qualified person to be president.

Answer 2

I kind of agree with Clark to a certain extent, it's obvious that military leadership or the lack of aren't definitive qualifications to being the President of the United States. Wesley Clark himself being one time head of NATO and the supreme commander during the Kosovo war couldn't even make it out of the Democratic primaries in 2004.

But for Clark diss a fellow brother in arms like Kerry did to all of his brothers is inexcusable. F*ck him!

Answer 3

McCain's service involved far more than being a POW. You might want to do a little research before posting something so foolish.

So tell me again how Obama is qualified to be president, based on such?

EDIT: Kid, you really should stop listening to propaganda and learn a few facts. AWOL... pfah. The left really needs to get over its collective Bush Derangement Syndrome. John Kerry was, and still is, a black mark on the Navy. What vermin he is/was! Self-serving prick!

P.S. Wikipedia is a laughable source, and Clark nearly got us into WWIII. The Hero of Waco!

By the way, before you make claims based on the 9/11 report, go and actually READ IT. I have. All 900-plus pages.

Answer 4

Why should Clark apologize? Should he say "I'm sorry. I was wrong. Getting shot down does automatically qualify a person to be president"?

McCain graduated from the bottom of the bottom of his navy class and his father had to pull strings to get him to even graduate. McCain is touting his military service as qualification to be president. And he thinks his experience puts him above his opponents. For example, McCain said Obama's opinion of the GI bill doesn't count because he didn't serve in the military. He thinks it automatically makes him a patriotic war hero.

Answer 5

I am sorry he was shot down and I am sorry in was a pow but he has traded on that fact the rest of his life.   and no that fact by itself does not qualify him for president....

Answer 6

Generals and Admirals are people who have the ability to form friendships and enemies within their prospective organizations.

What would make me believe that his statement is not some long standing grudge he has had with McCain or it may even go so far as a grudge against some associate of McCain...Right?

General Clark is not someone I know or trust, so why should I believe or agree with him?

And why is Osoma, I mean oBAMa trotting out his character assassins and witnesses?

PS...for the clueless....Military service, especially in the Officers and Upper ranked enlisted equate to LEADERSHIP....Military training instills and promotes LEADERSHIP.....

Also to be noted about Kerry and His Purple Hearts, 2 of the citations were questionable at best and one was simply self inflicted...THROUGH HIS OWN IGNORANCE, BUT STILL SELF INFLICTED.

Answer 7

I completely disagree with Gen. Clark. I'm not necessarily a McCain fan but his conclusions about McCain are shallow at best.

Answer 8

Sorry about that, Dontknow.

It would have been interesting to have an objective analysis and edifying discussion about this business.

As a Vietnam vet, I have enormous respect for my peer group, and for all they have suffered. I hold myself second to none when it comes to appreciation of John McCain's service (not withstanding those who were never in the service yet see themselves qualified to judge the merits of those who were) and admire him for it. I have read General Clark's statement and watched a re-broadcast of it.

      I agree with his principal contention that service in the military, no matter how honorable or brave, does not a president make. American presidents past have had military and war credentials. Among those, I suspect that only Grant and Ike rode that credential into the white house. It is acceptable to me to assert the position that a service record is a populist talking point, not a free pass. As you can see in todays news,the colonel who headed the "swift boating" brigade against Kerry, has been trotted out to endorse McCain. Does it raise the question of his motivation; endorse a post war republican, trash a post war democrat?

In passing, I would like to note my exception to your parenthetical. No one who served in 'Nam, and performed with courage and honor, ought to be suffer implied castigation with terms such as you use. To include the holocaust as an inferential simile is both disingenuous and unecessary to the discussion of your point. To a service man, the question of the legality, necessity, or morality of the conflict does not arise. We went in response to orders, served as best we could and did what we could to see that we and our comrades came home.

Most 'Nam vets will tell you that they never talk about their experiences with those who were not there. War is an experiential phenomon; if you weren't "in country," if youv'e never had experienced warriors trying to kill you and yours, you can not be expected to understand.

Keep that thought in mind as we consider the merits ex post facto.

Answer 9

Well, we've had two presidents in a row who had very little to do with the military and people on one side or the other were happy with them. I'm not sure how leading a large group of men into death and mass murder qualifies one for anything.

Answer 10

That is interesting way of spinning it. Some protester with signs reading-- How many napalm runs before getting shot down.

Personally wonder how person with his reported injuries survived without special treatment. Is anyone else held with him alive? How fresh were the cuts in his mouth from rocks when released. Cracked Confessed Commander and Chief and Chief of Napalm use.