With all the back and forth about Obama and Clark it seems some of us may have taken our eyes off the ball. Ranting around in circles about whether General Clark was right or Senator Obama was right keeps us off the point and that is that McCain as president is wrong.
So for my response, I am going to follow up Clark's comments with a reposting of an excellent diary by fellow dkosser, Timothy L Smith, entitled On McCain-Another POW's View. It's a letter written by Phillip Butler, PhD, Cdr, USN (ret.), entitled Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain .
I am not a reporter, and have not been able to verify the information or identities in this diary. Perhaps someone here has those vetting abilities. I hope that a reporter will follow up and maybe even interview Dr/Cdr Butler. (Update: Let the vetting begin - hat-tip to sc kitty and Truthout.org for giving Phillip Butler the clout he deserves.)
Please check it out. It's good stuff.
In the spirit of fair use I will just put a standard excerpt and encourage you to read the full letter. Emphasis my own.
John McCain served his time as a POW with great courage, loyalty and tenacity. More that 600 of us did the same. After our repatriation a census showed that 95% of us had been tortured at least once. The Vietnamese were quite democratic about it. There were many heroes in North Vietnam. I saw heroism every day there. And we motivated each other to endure and succeed far beyond what any of us thought we had in ourselves. Succeeding as a POW is a group sport, not an individual one. We all supported and encouraged each other to survive and succeed. John knows that. He was not an individual POW hero. He was a POW who surmounted the odds with the help of many comrades, as all of us did.
I furthermore believe that having been a POW is no special qualification for being President of the United States. The two jobs are not the same, and POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate.
Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.
I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.
No analysis on my part is necessary. Somethings stand on their own.