As a former serviceman and as a proud American, I sincerely respect and admire that John McCain was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. That said, I have to question whether that experience qualifies Mr. McCain as a hero or to be president and commander in chief.
A hero by definition is someone who performs a heroic deed. I am not minimizing the hardships Mr. McCain experienced, but we must not blow that out of proportion. Unfortunate, yes; heroic, hardly. He was not the only prisoner in Hanoi, and although he was imprisoned a long time, many, many others were imprisoned much longer than he was.
Mr. McCain implies that his military service has equipped him to be a strong and formidable commander in chief, but we are electing a president, and being commander in chief is only part of that position, not the position.
The people of this country and the world are sick and tired of war. We have incredible problems in the United States and all the effort and capital we have poured into war has exacerbated them. The United States needs a president who can work to solve our problems, not continue to maintain them.
The present administration has unequivocally stated that the reasons we went to war with Iraq were not substantiated. There were no weapons of mass destruction that could and would be imminently used against us or our allies. Saddam Hussein was not in league with al-Qaida. We, in fact, did not go to war. What we did was attack, invade and conquer a country. What in God’s name qualifies and dignifies victory in an unjustified war?
Mr. McCain would better present himself as an ideal presidential candidate by telling us how he will solve our national problems, rather than continuing a horrible mistake to eventual “victory,” whatever that means. We have had our fill of a “war president.”
My hearty thanks to a fellow veteran.
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