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Military Experience Rare Among '08 Candidates
Reuters News Service ^ | Jun 25, 2007 | Andy Sullivan

Posted on 06/25/2007 7:26:04 AM PDT by kellynla

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To: kellynla

But....Hillary! tried to enlist in the marines.


21 posted on 06/25/2007 8:26:48 AM PDT by paddles
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To: paddles

She was vice Commander in Chief!


22 posted on 06/25/2007 8:30:02 AM PDT by jaydubya2
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To: Battle Axe

It happens. ;^)


23 posted on 06/25/2007 8:41:08 AM PDT by airborne (Airborne - Ranger - Vietnam veteran! Duncan Hunter for President!)
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To: gcruse

Bringing back the draft would solve the lack of veterans running for office problem, while giving more people a sense of stake in the country.


The draft is slavery.

If a nation can’t get enough volunteers to fight, it is picking the wrong battles.


24 posted on 06/25/2007 8:55:34 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed ("We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them, I won't chip away at them" -Mitt Romney)
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To: Beelzebubba

The US didn’t pick WWII. Japan picked it for us, just as 9/11 picked us for the WOT.


25 posted on 06/25/2007 9:07:32 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: RC2
“He was shot down on his first flight into Viet Nam and spent the rest of his career in prison.”

Wrong. Where the hell do you come up with this crap. McCain was shot down on his 23rd mission. And this was after volunteering for duty aboard the Oriskany after a fire on the Forrestal killed over one hundred and took her out of service for two years. His squadron lost 38 pilots and 60 aircraft (more losses than any other Naval aviation unit in the war). I understand you may not like him as a politician, but to denigrate his service is BS. I don’t know of you’re a veteran, but you armchair admirals really make me sick.

26 posted on 06/25/2007 9:17:05 AM PDT by stormer (Get your bachelors, masters, or doctorate now at home in your spare time!)
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To: gcruse

My point remains. The Draft is slavery.


27 posted on 06/25/2007 9:26:45 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed ("We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them, I won't chip away at them" -Mitt Romney)
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To: stormer; RC2

Bump for truth catching up with a lie.


28 posted on 06/25/2007 9:27:29 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: Beelzebubba

Then so be it.


29 posted on 06/25/2007 9:28:26 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: stormer
I personally feel his service is marred by the man he became afterwards.

(1) His role in "normalizing" relations to Vietnman...frankly put his Hanoi Hilton history in a serious questionable light.

(2) His steam-rolling over the MIA families ...and the issues of the unaccounted for servicement ...to make it happen.

(3)His proclivity to call Defense R&D and U.S. military hardware procurements as opposed to buying from the French or other foreign suppliers...as "pork."

Can you say Manchurian Candidate? Haven't you ever wondered why his "maverick" proclivities always, always, always, veer against the U.S. Constitution and our liberty? And his national defense postures, with the singular exception of the WOT, are weak...if not Fifth Columnist Liberal.

30 posted on 06/25/2007 9:44:20 AM PDT by Paul Ross (Ronald Reagan-1987:"We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.")
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To: kellynla

Hell, there’s not much military experience in our military anymore, either.


31 posted on 06/25/2007 9:45:52 AM PDT by RavenATB
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To: kellynla

If we expect to have military veterans we should have more and bigger wars. Even Vietnam was long ago enough that McCain is doddering. War with millions drafted will produce veterans. Lack of war will not. Iraq will not produce so many veterans becasuse it is not big enough. Demand war, then demand veterans.


32 posted on 06/25/2007 9:49:10 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Treaty)
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To: kellynla

I notice the article just talks about the draft and why candidates did not enter the service. No mention of the fact that you can also volunteer to serve and not be forced into the service involuntarily.


33 posted on 06/25/2007 9:52:07 AM PDT by kabar
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To: RC2
McCain served on the front lines? He was shot down on his first flight into Viet Nam and spent the rest of his career in prison.

Not true. In June of 1967, McCain (by then a lieutenant commander) set out for Vietnam from Norfolk, Virginia aboard the USS Forrestal. The carrier was in the Gulf of Tonkin on July 29, its crew preparing for the second launch of the fifth day of striking enemy targets in North Vietnam, when one of its own bombs detonated on deck. McCain narrowly escaped the resulting conflagration that killed 132 crewmen, with two others missing and presumed dead, and injured 62 more. It was one of the worst military accidents of the war.

A little less than three months later, on October 26, McCain was making his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his plane was hit by an antiaircraft missile. Forced to eject, breaking both arms and a leg in the process, he landed in a lake near Hanoi and was captured. He spent the next five and a half years as a prisoner of war (POW) at the sarcastically nicknamed "Hanoi Hilton."

34 posted on 06/25/2007 9:54:50 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Battle Axe
Ummm... did you miss:

Hunter, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, has made military issues central to his career in Congress.

35 posted on 06/25/2007 9:58:31 AM PDT by kevkrom ("Government is too important to leave up to the government" - Fred Dalton Thompson)
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To: RC2
McCain served on the front lines? He was shot down on his first flight into Viet Nam and spent the rest of his career in prison. From what I have heard, he was shot down because of his own mistakes. He also graduated from the Naval Academy, after five years, instead of the normal four years and graduated at the bottom of his class.

I'm not much of a fan of McCain's, but I don't let my dislike of McCain compromise the truth. McCain had completed 23 missions over Vietnam before being shot down. He was not shot down on his first mission. According to his wingman, McCain was hit by anti-aircraft fire as he rolled into his dive. I'm not sure how that can be considered a mistake. McCain graduated from Episcopal High School in Alexandria in 1954 and from the Naval Academy in 1958 so it doesn't look like he could have spent 5 years getting his degree. He graduated near the bottom but not at the bottom. Trust me, there's enough to dislike McCain about without having to belittle his Naval career.

36 posted on 06/25/2007 10:01:16 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: All

Hillary hates the military, does that count as experience?


37 posted on 06/25/2007 10:02:42 AM PDT by newnhdad
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To: RC2
The next time you engage in character assassination, do a little research on the facts. I am no fan of John McCain, but as a Vietnam veteran myself, I respect and admire his military service.

"Injured and ill, McCain was denied medical assistance until his captors learned that he was an admiral's son, and even then treatment was rudimentary. His father's position also prompted the North Vietnamese to offer him early release in June of 1968. McCain refused, as the U.S. Military Code of Conduct required that prisoners accept release on a first in/first out basis, and there were more than 100 POWs ahead of him. refusal resulted in a round of torture that included knocking his teeth out,hanging him by his broken arms, and beating him almost around the clock for a week. Although the abuse never succeeded in convincing McCain to accept early release, he did break down and sign a confession that he was a "black criminal" and an "air pirate."

"The shame of the confession led McCain to contemplate suicide at the time, and stayed with him years after the fact. "The only thing I can say is that the code says you will resist to the best of your ability," he told Pierce in 1998. "But I failed myself. I failed my fellow prisoners. I failed my family, and I failed my country. Is there anybody else?" Most did not judge McCain as harshly as he judged himself; many, indeed, found his ongoing determination to remain in prison heroic. He was finally released on March 14, 1973, and urned home with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross."

38 posted on 06/25/2007 10:02:48 AM PDT by kabar
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To: RightWhale

Starship Troopers model?


39 posted on 06/25/2007 10:18:03 AM PDT by redlegplanner
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To: kellynla

Only Rudy has any experience with military, jurist, federal investigations of crime in the field. McCain does, but he is a sure loser in Pub primaries. Of course, on the Dem side, their high lights are in protest movements , with paint, horrid music, dope and anti-military stances. I am afraid the voter-populace do not think military expertize is very important anymore. Hunter is a great guy and will make a good SECDEF or SECSTATE under a Pub. President. He will not be our nominee and we all know it.


40 posted on 06/25/2007 10:33:44 AM PDT by phillyfanatic ( w)
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