Obama v. McCain: Where's the Military Service?

I have seen a number of comments on the internet which cast dispersions upon Barak Obama because he did not spend time in the armed forces. These same postings tend to paint John McCain as a war hero. Let's examine both viewpoints:

Obama is two years younger than me. When we were young men there was no war and no draft. Obama, much better than myself, stayed busy with the social problems in his own back yard.

If you will read McCain's autobiography "Faith of My Fathers" you will see that, by his own account, he was one of the most miserable collaborators in North Viet Nam. The rest of the story is easily summed up in DOD intercepts of things such as McCain's Radio Hanoi broadcasts to American troops which were heard by his own father and his voice verified by the DOD.

Although he soft-sells it in his book he also admits to it since the truth has already been obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. It would be all over the press if people were not so "war hero" defensive.

Barak Obama and any other person who responds to the immediate problems of their generation is a hero, especially if they are willing to start in their own back yard.

On the other hand anyone who finished at the bottom of his class at Annapolis, then got a position as Navy Pilot due to his father and grandfather both being four star admirals, then ditching at least two jets for no reason along with two more jets for good reason cannot use those particular events to claim the title of hero.

McCain was a drunken, layabout, adulterer who lived off his Dad's reputation. He was coddled as a POW and actually says in his autobiography that, "at my request I was transferred to another camp". That is his full explanation for why he was immediately (after medical treatment) moved from the "Hanoi Hilton" to the show camp called "The Plantation". I wonder if the other POWs knew that one could simply request to leave the Hanoi Hilton....

The objective in war is not to be captured and treated like "The Prince" as the Viet Cong called him. The objective is to win. John McCain was an incompetent who folded like a cheap umbrella when captured. His revelation of the Navy's package routes led to the end of Hanoi bombing because of the sharply increased pilot deaths.

Barak Obama entered public service at the right place and right time. He never became a "war hero", but neither did Senator McCain. Obama's claim to fame in the military sense is that he, unlike McCain, did not betray secret military reporting structures, did not willingly give military secrets to the Cubans and the French Communists.

So, if anyone thinks Obama should have found a way to spend 5 1/2 years as a POW during peacetime it is only right that that person vote for McCain. McCain could become a POW in any situation.

I don't know if it's true that the other nickname the Viet Cong gave to McCain was "Songbird", but I do know that he went a lot further in collaborating with the enemy than 95% of his peers.