Dubya Loses the Support of Military and Vetrans

[JoseCuervo]

I am sure this doesn't mean anything, and our local Rush Limbaugh parrots will dismiss this as "liberal media reporting".....

WASHINGTON – When the Bush campaign asked James McKinnon to co-chair its veterans steering committee in New Hampshire – a job he held in 2000 – the 56-year-old Vietnam veteran respectfully, but firmly, said no.


“I basically told them I was disappointed in his support of veterans,” said McKinnon, who served two tours in Vietnam with the Coast Guard. “He’s killing the active-duty military. ... Look at the reserves call-ups for Iraq, the hardships. The National Guard – the state militia – is being used improperly. I took the president at his word on Iraq, and now you can’t find a single report to back up or substantiate weapons of mass destruction.”


President Bush is seeking re-election as a “war president” whose decisive leadership steered the military to victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But as guerrilla warfare drags on in both countries, casualties mount and the Army is stretched ever thinner, many voters in or affiliated with the military are no longer saluting the commander in chief.


The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or evidence that Saddam Hussein was in league with al-Qaida, lengthy deployments of active-duty soldiers and reservists and proposed cuts in veterans’ benefits and perks to military families are threatening to erode Bush’s once-strong support among military voters.

Link to story....

 

[pawclaws]

Yes lots of folk are willing to hang in there for the duration as long as it is no longer than 60 minutes including six commercial breaks.

 

[ELKCHSR]

There is a fellow that works where my wife works and he is excited to be activated (National Guard), just because the media touts every little whiney dissident that comes along does by no means mean they are all under the same consensus. I don't see much about the positive goings on in Iraq, but what does slip by our communistic news media seems to be pretty positive and upbeat (These pukes have become every thing they were beating the drums against in the sixties) funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same. The last thing this Liberal news media wants is to see Bush on top of any thing, even if he is the only one left standing. The only people that are against every thing that has been going on as of the last couple years is those that can’t see the big picture and those that are swayed with every passing fad and theory that happens to be blown between their empty ears…

 

[MarlandS]

hmmm how many U.S. Soldiers were killed after Japan's surrender over what period of time?

Same question for post WWII Germany.

 

[Ten Bears]

I'm a veteran, and I don't oppose a second term for Bush.

 

[Nemont]

Vietnam

"I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way... What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be re-fighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary." -- John Kerry back in 1992

"Under Kerry's leadership, VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against The War) members mocked the uniform of United States soldiers by wearing tattered fatigues marked with pro-Communist graffiti. They dishonored America by marching in demonstrations under the flag of the Viet Cong enemy.” -- Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry

"(N)o one in the United States Senate pushed harder to bury the POW/MIA issue, the last obstacle preventing normalization of relations with Hanoi, than John Forbes Kerry." -- US Veteran Dispatch

"People are going to remember Gen. Giap saying if it weren't for these guys [Kerry's group], we would have lost. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War encouraged people to desert, encouraged people to mutiny - some used what they wrote to justify fragging officers." -- Oliver North

We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the "greater glory of the United States." We will not accept the rhetoric. We will not readily join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars -- in fact, we will find it hard to join anything at all and when we do, we will demand relevancy such as other organizations have recently been unable to provide. We will not take solace from the creation of monuments or the naming of parks after a select few of the thousands of dead Americans and Vietnamese. We will not uphold traditions which decorously memorialize that which was base and grim. -- John Kerry, in "The New Soldier"

"War crimes in Vietnam are the rule, not the exception." -- John Kerry, May 1971

"To attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom...is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy." -- John Kerry, 1971

Link

Nemont

 

[Erik in AK]

Uhh...no, not true

I can say from first hand experience that the vast majority of the active duty AF are pleased to have Mr Bush in the White House. Knowing the President values your service means a lot.

Long deployments are the nature of the business. As far as the Guard & Reserves are concerned--thats what they signed up for whether they realized it or not. Clinton butchered our AD end strength which made heavier use of the G&R ineviteble.

Mr McKinnon's dissention aside, I notice that most of the woe-is-me soldier interviews are amongst the Nintendo warriors of the MTV generation. Where are the career NCO interviews? Where are the steely-eyed killers quietly going about their duty? You won't see them up close because they don't help get JFK elected.

A-10's...ugly, but well hung(sorry coont hep masef)

 

[2fastnaz]

I too am a veteran and I support Bush.

 

[JohnSWA]

This veteran is still looking and not committed as far as whom to vote for. That being said, I support Bush for now but will look at all other candidates sans Kerry.

God Bless the American Soldier!

 

[Calif. Hunter]

The people in the military that I have heard object to Bush are the ones who joined up for the benefits without considering that they may actually have to go to war. This includes the husband of my best friend's daughter - a girl who is just like a daughter to me.


Many people do that - join the military or the Guard as a way to enjoy a retirement program, healthcare, etc. Then reality sets in...

 

[danr55]

"and now you can’t find a single report to back up or substantiate weapons of mass destruction.”


...and what, exactly, were the 34 intermediate range missles found in Basra? Does anyone remember seeing pictures of those little jewels on TV or hearing the reporter say that the warheads were similar in design to those used for delivering chemical weapons?

 

[feclnogn]

Elkgunner,

Try this, go to your local VFW post on Friday night and ask for those supporting Kerry to raise their hands. Report back to us on Saturday your results.

I just saw a report on TV that spending for vets has gone up 27% under Bush, more than twice that of Clinton.

 

[JoseCuervo]

It is interesting to watch all the denials of the statement by the man who was the Co-Chair for Dubya's steering committee in 2000.....

 

[feclnogn]

Where is the denial? How many Vietnam vets do you know that are voting for Kerry? I know several and none are voting for him.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Fecl,

You may have me on that one, as I am stumped to think of a single in-country Viet Nam vet that I know? I used to know some, but that was a while back.

How many guys actually served over there? And how old are they getting to be now? My guess is between 50 and 62 years old?? Is the Viet Nam vetran vote a large number? And do they really vote as a block, or are they split?

Wait, I just thought of one, but I have never heard how he would vote.

 

[ROCKYMTNELKSTALKER]

I too am a vet, and I can say that ALL the vets that I personally know support Bucsh and are going to vote for him again. Bush has done more to help vets then his father or Billary ever did. As far as support for the Democartic party and from vet who remember the little things, ask a vet how they felt after 3OCT93, seeing those guys in Somalia and how the president yanked the rug out from under them then. Try to get anyone of them to vote for someone like Kerry that trashes the job and the memory of those that fought and died overseas not for mom, apple pie, and the USA, but for thier buddies. I don't think you'll get many supporters from them.

 

[ELKCHSR]

I am a vet and would also vote again for Bush over any of the Dem/Socialist/Lib/Communists that are vieing for the position...

 

[Nemont]

EG,
Here Vietnam Vets by the numbers

Vietnam Warriors:

A Statistical Profile In Uniform and In Country Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation.
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era (Aug. 5, 1964-May 7, 1975)
8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war (Aug. 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).
3,403,100 (including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters).
2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965- March 28, 1973).
Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964.
Of the 2.6 million, between 1-1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
7,484 women (6,250 or 83.5% were nurses) served in Vietnam.
Peak troop strength in Vietnam: 543,482 (April 30, 1969).

web page

Nemont

 

[Erik in AK]

Gunner,
Of what denial do you speak?
News Flash:
1 disaffected ex-GOP co-chair from a political skidmark state like New Hampshire does not necessarily represent "veterans".

The only AD military and veterans sub-groups that consistantly tend to vote Dem are minority females. Regardless of socioeconomic background, military service tends to turn recruits into Republicans.

The Clinton's open disdain for the military strengthened the natural mil/vet distrust of the Democrats as a party and will cost them on election day for a long time to come.

 

[Ten Bears]

Vets constitute a very small portion of the overall population. These days I have run into more people claiming to be vets, but really never served.....