[Half Vast Conspiracy]

This guy is just a Dem hack. I really don't get his comment about Allen West in relation to moral superiority.

[DoughtyOne]

Ten reasons = 1 very good reason...

Not to vote for the person who came up with the ten reasons.

[rktman]

Cause most of them are “domestic terry wrists” hiding in sleeper cells?

[Old Sarge]

West simply demonstrated that he is a POLITICIAN - and as such, will do or say anything, to anyone, to get your vote (and his job).

His votes on NDAA and USDA Pigford, his “Justice for Trayvon” comments, and his backpedalling away from Odinga’s forgeries should tell you all about his character.

Yes, this writer is a Socialist. But even the blind squirrel found a nut: being a veteran does not insulate you from accountability, any more than being black.

[Dr. Sivana]

The current Congress has 88 veterans in the House and 18 in the Senate. That's a representation of 16 and 36 percent, respectively.

He also doesn't know how to divide 18 by 100.

[VanDeKoik]

I regret my vote for George Washington every day. /s

[Da Coyote]

“
This guy is just a Dem hack. I really don’t get his comment about Allen West in relation to moral superiority. “

Agree, Allen West’s morals are far, far superior to the vast majority the house and senate.

[TankerKC]

More here: Extending the debate on '10 reasons not to vote for a veteran'

He writes, “I have no strong leaning to either party.”

All you have to do is read his essays and you know that’s a lie.

[stremba]

...And apparently they’re really bad at math (or at least this moron is). 18 veteran senators out of 100 is not equal to 36%!

[Bogey78O]

What happened to Star & Stripes?

When the military magazine is telling active duty soldiers they’re not as good as civilians, something is terribly wrong.

[Political Junkie Too]

How about discipline?

See George Washington.

-PJ

[Political Junkie Too]

Here is a thread that I started back in 2003 at the beginning of the Bush Texas ANG vs John Kerry Fortunate Son scandals.

Command Military Background of the Presidents

-PJ

[smoothsailing]

3. We make a mess of the dialogue. The Gansler/Brown controversy isn't the only kerfuffle over veteran political candidates in recent memory. Remember Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? How about Special Operations For America? The only things that make a bigger mess of American elections than our wars are the people who fight them.

This guy hates our veterans but loves John Kerry & Barack Obama

What a dickhead.

[stanne]

S & S is a liberal tag, ironically

[Sgt_Schultze]

FWIW, Maryland has another vet running for governor, Charles Lollar. From what little I've seen, he's still an impressive man - with little chance.

[blueunicorn6]

He doesn’t like it when somebody speaks for the Veterans, and then he purports to speak for the Veterans.

[vpintheak]

This guy is obviously 1 of the few RAT Veterans.
If this Country was ran by Veterans we would be in much better shape!

[Billthedrill]

Jim Gourley is an author, journalist, and former military intelligence officer. He served in Iraq.

Hey, that's a really nice citation. The problem is that he doesn't feel himself that it's worth anything. Or maybe the rules for authors are different from the rules for politicians?

[discostu]

I wouldn’t vote for anybody JUST because they’re a veteran. Many of our worst politicians found a way to wear a uniform for a bit.

[Svartalfiar]

Some of his points are valid, IF you’re talking about someone who’s been in the military since graduating high school, and is running for office after ETS. They will be missing a lot of the experience and highly different attitudes from the civilian world.

But most vets that run have at least a couple of years of experience in a civilian job, have managed their budget outside of government-funded everything, and aren’t the complete goobers he makes vets out to be. Sure, you don’t vote for someone just because of military experience. Look at McCain, Kerry, him, etc., and you definitely don’t make military experience the sole plank of your campaign. But if the only thing I know about two candidates is that one served while the other didn’t, all I know is that one person has life experiences and has been given lifetime tools that help them become a better person. They’ve learnt discipline, punctuality, and so on. It’s a plus in their column. Not a minus. Just not the whole equation.

[x]

6. We really don't understand the average American. Most current serving veteran members of Congress are former army officers. They are college educated and many have graduate degrees. They began their military careers significantly higher on the pay scale than their civilian peers, never had to worry about health care, lived in the ultimate gated community, bought their groceries at federally subsidized stores, got all kinds of discounts when living on the civilian economy, were often given a pass on state income and sales taxes, and their pay raises and career advancement were more or less set to a stopwatch. Maybe being in the military is a real job, but it sure isn't like any other job in the world, and for a lot more reasons than "the sacrifices" for which it calls. Don't assume that fighting for you on a battlefield means this person knows how to do it in a legislative body.

This is particularly obtuse. Is somebody who served as a lieutenant in the military somehow further from the experience of ordinary Americans than the parade of lawyers we habitually elect to office?

I'm thinking that a former officer probably does understand the men and women he served with better than someone whose whole experience has been in the bubble of the upper-middle or upper class professional world.

A veteran understands what it means to serve in the military and go to war and might be less inclined to go to war or to go to war in the half-*ss*d way that we often do.