him lying us into another war.

Fortunately, Bernie will not be the nominee.

I think I should have made it clear I wasn't saying that I was observing it or something something. Musing I guess.

...is a hell of a lot worse. Blatantly lied about dealing with war conditions just like Brian Williams.

of many reasons I dislike Hillary. Drumming up some BS sniper story for personal gain is pathetic, unethical, and disrespectful.

Is that Brian Williams' career was ruined while it was just a bump in the road for Hillary.

Guess that is the difference between politicians and journalists. We expect politicians to lie to us, which is a sad commentary on how cynical our society has become. I guess we can thank Nixon for starting us down that path.

But they're more than willing to send others to war at the drop of a hat.

Trump was allowed to diss McCain.

What the fuck kind of American President is that!

Hillary, at least, is ready to drop the nukes on Iran!

And he was elected twice.

If I recall correctly, he had written a letter pleading some National Guard muckymuck to help him stay out of Nam and then got a very high draft number.

Because it will.

Current FBI investigation. Don't think for one second the GOP will let her off the hook on these.

But this is one of my bigger worries for the fall.

Have a great track record on that. I think Sanders would be able to hit them hard on the fact they are bought and paid for by big money donations. The contrast will be clear.

Of course I figure Hillary will still get the nomination and lose in a landslide due to FBI and all the other baggage.

That's going to be really, really rough.

but it wouldn't be difficult to point out that none of the other candidates have military service and have also voted in favor of military action.

In any case, the question "why didn't you serve" is probably a very delicate subject that the other candidates are likely to tiptoe around, particularly Trump, who was in his early twenties during Vietnam and definitely draft age.

Kasich and Carson were draft age as well in the late sixties and probably won't bring it up to avoid having to answer difficult questions about their own lack of service.

Cruz and Rubio are slightly younger than I am and could have signed up but it appears they chose not to. They likely would have had a fairly quiet time since they would have just missed the Gulf War. They don't remember much if anything about Vietnam (neither do I for that matter) so any criticism by them will come off as weak because they never had any skin in the game.

republican candidate with military service, they're going to have difficulty because they'll be asked why they didn't sign up for service during a period that was largely quiet.

If you can't see that attack ad already...

If they were war hungry they would probably just go full on batshitcrazy and register as Republicans. So, Bernie just has to get more Independents than the Republican candidate does and I don't think they have a sane enough candidate to run that will get the Independents.

Last edited Mon Feb 15, 2016, 01:26 AM - Edit history (1)

candidates have served? Doubt that it can be used.

What stopped her?

have standards?

a retired Army veteran and I have zero issues with the fact Bernie used the legitimate C/O process to avoid doing something his conscious told him was wrong. Of course, he could have found any number of other ways to avoid service, like heading to Canada or, as another mentioned, coming up with some medical disqualifier, but he didn't.

The candidate that doesn't like war, that doesn't see it as the first or second option but the very last option, that performs their due diligence before committing to put troops on the ground, that's the candidate I want as CINC.

I acknowledge my opinion will, of course, not be echoed by some of my brothers and sisters in arms, but it is mine.

Concerning the GE and republicans, I don't recall hearing any of them serving, so good luck trying to tar and feather him about it. The moment one of them opens up their yap to chastise him for it, they better be ready to answer why they didn't put their name on the dotted line.

He applied for conscientious objector status, and was turned down. So not being drafted wasn't due to his being a conscientious objector, because he wasn't one.

Bush and Cheney sent hundreds of thousands into horrible battle as if it were a game. Not just hundreds of thousands of Americans but hundreds of thousands of others are paying the price every single day.

I volunteer on a veterans' crisis line. Some people came back fine. Some people did not. The suffering is incredible. Just beyond words. It would shatter any normal person to hear just one soldier's story. I want a Commander in Chief who does NOT send people into war lightly. And if he is a conscientious objector, I am certain that he will not play war games with the lives of others.