Some on left target McCain's war record - Ben Smith - Politico.com
The highest voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex, or age, but
Senator John McCain's military service.
McCain's campaign Sunday issued a pair of outraged statements after retired general and Barack Obama supporter Wesley Clark said he didn't think that McCain?s service as a fighter pilot and prisoner of war was relevant to running the country. Obama has consistently praised McCain's service, and called him "a genuine American hero."
But farther to the left?and among some of McCain's conservative enemies as well?harsher attacks are circulating. Critics have accused McCain of war crimes for bombing targets in Hanoi in the 1960s. Sunday, a widely read liberal blog accused McCain of "disloyalty" during his captivity in Vietnam for his coerced participation in propaganda films and interviews after he?d been tortured.
I think Obama's supporters are playing a dangerous game here. Unless some individuals that has served with McCain come out and verify some of the things the left spouts this could backfire..... After all the man won the CMH (I believe?) and they just don't give those out to anybody. Now if it can be proven that he received that award and he shouldn't have then that is a different story.
But most of the attacks on McCain's war record are now coming from the left. In a Huffington Post blog, a former editor of Mother Jones magazine, Jeffrey Klein, called?in tones reminiscent of right-wing attacks on Kerry in 2004?on McCain to
release elements of his Navy record that the candidate has not made available to the public or the press.
I agree McCain should release the records. If everything is on the up and up then it should put the matter to rest......
"I wouldn't characterize anybody who fought in Vietnam as a war hero," said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the theatrical anti-war group Code Pink. "In 23 bombing sorties, there must have been civilians that were killed and there's no heroism to that." "Anyone who can't look back and admit how wrong it was to be in Vietnam and be killing civilians deserves to be challenged," she said, though she stressed that her group is more focused on McCain's present support for the war in Iraq than on his past.
Some people will never get it.....
