Bikers May Love McCain But Veterans Do Not

If you follow the general storyline put forth by a mainstream media star-struck by a war hero, or simply observe the reception John McCain often receives at rallies held at veteran's organizations, it's very easy to accept and believe that all veterans everywhere practically worship John McCain. I've noticed this especially true of people who do not have a military background -- they often confuse enthusiastic support for McCain's SERVICE as support for his RECORD.

Troops cheer the man, the story goes, therefore they must want to vote for him. Veterans get teary-eyed and salute the flag when he appears, therefore they must be McCain supporters.

McCain's a war hero; he's got the military vote sewn up. Obama didn't serve, so he can kiss the military good-bye.

I have read this assumption in op-ed after op-ed, in blogpost after blogpost, even in commentary posted on blogs. It was especially glaring after Gen. Wesley Clark tangled with Bob Shieffer on CBS's, "Face the Nation," and Shieffer expressed dismay that, because Clark was critical of McCain's position on such things as the new G.I. Bill, that he was "denigrating McCain's service."

My husband, brother, father, brother-in-law are all Vietnam vets, and another brother-in-law recently retired at the rank of brigadier general of the U.S. Army special forces. (My dad retired from the Marine Corps at the rank of Master Gunnery Sgt.) My step-dad was retired Air Force and my sister did a hitch in the Air Force.

My son did two Marine Corps combat deployments to Iraq, (including the grueling Battle of Fallujah in Nov. of '04); my nephew did three combat deployments to Iraq with the Marines, and another nephew recently returned from a 15-month Iraq combat tour with an army Stryker Brigade -- part of Bush's troop escalation last year. Yet another nephew has done one deployment to Afghanistan with army special forces and is currently deployed in another part of the world.

For the first three years of the war, we had five Mills family members on active duty, and until my nephew's return from Iraq last month, we had a close Mills family member deployed to Iraq every year since it began in 2003 -- sometimes two at once.

I have spoken out against the Iraq war from the beginning and started blogging on it during my son's second deployment to Iraq, with his full support. Though I don't get paid for it, I've made it pretty much my full-time job, writing about "the troops" and the effects of repeat deployments on their health, sanity, and family life, and trying to end this godforsaken war.

I am often surprised at how little the civilian world truly understands the military mind. After virtually an entire generation at peace (not counting the Gulf War, which ended practically before it began), there are people in their 20's and 30's who have no concept of military life beyond what they see in the movies or on the news.

For one thing, military types don't all march in lockstep anywhere except on the drill field. Some are conservative, some liberal, some in-between, and some don't care either way -- pretty much like the rest of us.

Military men and women everywhere appreciate courage under fire, period. I'd say that most all active-duty military and veterans greatly admire John McCain's service and the sacrifices he made as a POW. So if he comes to speak to them, they are going to leap to their feet and applaud him, cheer him, and listen respectfully to him speak. They might even try and get a photograph with him.

They are not, however, all going to vote for him.

For one thing, every single Iraq vet with whom I have spoken tells me that the one thing they want in a new president is an end to the war. Period. Whichever candidate comes closest to pledging to end that war, that is who has their support. And right now, that's Obama.

Even during the primaries, no other candidate, with the exception of Ron Paul, received as many active-duty campaign donations as Barack Obama. Paul, you may recall, also wanted to end the war.

Now, there are some active-duty and veterans who support McCain, of course, and would like to see him elected, and will vote for him and donate to his campaign.

But not nearly as many as you might think.

As Jon Soltz at VoteVets pointed out once: There is a difference between supporting a veteran's service and supporting his Senate voting record. And a large majority of veterans DO NOT support McCain's record.

But don't take it from me. Let's start by reviewing percentage-point ratings given by veterans groups of both presidential candidates, based on a minimum of 14 senatorial votes cast on issues ranging from additional inpatient and outpatient care of veterans to safety equipment for the troops deployed to Iraq to increased funds for improvements to veterans' health care facilities.

(It should be noted that the most junior senator, Barack Obama, was not in the senate yet during some of the votes counted, and yet still scored higher than McCain on veteran's issues.)

Disabled American Veterans

Key Votes--McCain 28%
Key Votes--Obama 92%

Vietnam Veterans of America

Key Votes--McCain 37%
Key Votes--Obama 92%

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Overall Grade: McCain D
Overall Grade: Obama B

My thanks to T Partier, who posted this at Talking Points MemoMarch 26 of this year

More damning is a piece put together by VoteVets.org, "Senator McCain's Real Record on the War in Iraq," on February 8, 2008.

This is a compilation of quotes given by McCain over the course of the war in which he not only insists that it will be over quickly, but praises Bush and Rumsfeld for the fine job they're doing, and quotes year after year after year in which he insists things like, "We're going to win this thing or lose this thing within the next several months." (November 2006)

It's fascinating reading, in light of his recent reversals from maintaining that our troops can remain in Iraq a hundred years or more to his sounds-better-to-voters idea that the war will be "won" by 2013--just in time for his reelection. (Sounds suspiciously like Richard Nixon's promise that he had a "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam by the end of his first term.) -- even though he's quoted on September 16, 2007, saying that "I believe to set a date for withdrawal is to set a date for surrender."

In other words, if a Democrat pulls out troops, it's SURRENDER. If McCain pulls out troops, it's VICTORY.

Got it?

But what caught my attention about the VoteVets piece -- is that, not only did McCain vote against adequate rest time for troops who've served multiple 15-month deployments, but that he was one of only 13 senators who voted AGAINST adding $430 million for inpatient and outpatient care for veterans.

Even as he has consistently voted to prolong this war year after year after year at tens of billions of dollars every week, putting unimaginable strain on the troops, who are returning with terrible injuries that require all kinds of care, including traumatic brain injury -- the war's "signature injury" -- which has overtaxed a system completely unprepared to handle the overload of patients from a prolonged war... even so, he begrudges them a measly $430 million bucks, which would be about one day of war-costs.

The most thorough analysis of McCain's war and veteran's votes that I've found so far was posted at DailyKos on February 28 of this year.

Along with voting against adequate troop rest or any end to the war whatsoever, McCain also

** voted against an amendment that would provide $20 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) for health care facilities.

** voted against $430 million (mentioned above) for outpatient care and treatment of veterans

** voted against increasing veterans' medical services funding by $1.5 billion

** voted against creating a reserve fund to allow for an increase in veterans' medical care by eliminating abusive tax loopholes

** voted to TABLE an amendment by Senator Dodd that called for an additional $322 million for safety equipment for forces in Iraq and to reduce the amount provided for reconstruction in Iraq by that same amount

** urged other senators to TABLE a vote (which never passed) to provide more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve quipment in Iraq related to SHORTAGES in helmets, tents, bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests

** voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650 million

And of course, even though an overwhelming majority of senators approved Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel's landmark update of the G.I. Bill, John McCain not only opposed it, but he also refused to cast a vote at all. He was one of only three senators who did not vote that day. (One of the others was Ted Kennedy, who'd just got out of the hospital after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.)

McCain's excuse? Fund-raiser.

Attitudes of troops toward the Iraq war has most notably been cataloged in a powerful survey taken by the Center for a New American Security of 3,400 active-duty officers from all branches of the military service, and published in the March/April of '08 issue of Foreign Policy.

Here are a few quotes:

These officers see a military apparatus severely strained by the grinding demands of war. Sixty percent say the U.S. military is weaker today than it was five years ago. Asked why, more than half cite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the pace of troop deployments those conflicts require. More than half the officers say the military is weaker than it was either 10 or 15 years ago. But asked whether "the demands of the war in Iraq have broken the U.S. military," 56 percent of the officers say they disagree. That is not to say, however, that they are without concern. Nearly 90 percent say that they believe the demands of the war in Iraq have "stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin.

A full 80 percent of the officers surveyed did not think that the U.S. was in a position right now to handle another war. When they were asked to rate their confidence in the U.S. presidency on a scale of one to ten, the officers gave Bush a rating of 5.5 -- higher than the civilian world rates him but hardly a ringing endorsement.

One of the biggest misperceptions I've seen of civilians toward military is that they assume that military-types are always gung-ho for war.

I can tell you right now that the only troops I've ever seen "gung-ho" are young teenagers on their first deployments who have not yet been asked to fight. I have never, ever spoken to a combat vet who WANTS to go to war or wants to return to fight. Yes, there are some, but the vast majority, those who know the true costs of war first-hand, have no desire to glamorize it.

The survey bears that out. In spite of the fact that Republicans love to paint Barack Obama's emphasis on diplomacy as well as political solutions over military as weak or soft or inexperienced or naive, the truth is that, quote:

Nearly three quarters of the officers say the United States must improve its intelligence capabilities--the highest percentage of any of the choices offered. Active-duty officers and those who have retired within the past year give a much higher priority to nonmilitary tools, including more robust diplomacy, developing a force of deployable civilian experts, and increasing foreign-aid programs.

Again -- in line with Obama's positions -- military officers surveyed repeated that modern warfare is, by its very nature, guerilla warfare and cannot be won by conventional warfare methods. Time and again those surveyed emphasized the importance of increasing our special forces, who are trained in a much different kind of skill-set than the average infantry troop.

Special forces troops go into a hot situation in groups of no more than a dozen. They are usually bearded and dressed in local garb. At least one of them speaks the language fluently and the rest have a rudimentary grasp of it. It is their job to get close to the power-broker of the area, be it a warlord, sheik, or gang leader -- and broker a trade of some kind that will, essentially, rat out the true terrorists.

This has been done successfully with regular ground troops in the Anbar province of Iraq, and is very similar to what SF does all the time. My brother-in-law did much of this kind of brokering with Bosnian warlords, and before he retired, was flown into Afghanistan to repeat the success he'd known in the Balkans.

Repeated deployments have damn near ruined the junior officer corps of the military, with even a historic high of 58 percent of West Point officers quitting the military as soon as their commitment ends, rather than staying to make a career of it.

In other surveys, military families have also soured on the Iraq war an want it to end -- something like 60 percent of them.

These are all issues that concern the military. Do they leap to their feet and cheer a man who held up under five years of enemy torture in a war? Absolutely.

But do they vote for him?

It depends upon how well they know his record. Those who understand that he has voted against veteran's issues far more frequently than for them, will not vote for him.

Cheer for him? Yes.

Vote for Barack Obama?

Probably.

Comments

[wolf58]

McCain Refused to Support Sen. Jim Webb"s and Chuck Hagel"s new GI Bill.

In February 2006, McCain voted against an amendment that would have provided for at least $19 billion for military health facilities, paid for by eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest earners.

McCain voted against a 2006 Democratic amendment that would have provided $2.8 billion to increase veterans" medical care.
.
McCain Voted Against Establishing $1 Billion Trust Fund to Provide Improvements to Military and Veterans" Health Facilities

McCain Chooses Corporations Over Veterans, Voting Against Adding $1.5 billion to Veterans" Medical Services in 2007 Budget by Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes

McCain Voted Against Mandatory Funding of $6.9 Billion in 2007 Budget and $104 Billion Over Five Years for Veterans' Health Care.

McCain voted against the Webb amendment calling for adequate troop rest between deployments.

McCain one of only 13 Senators to vote against $430 million for Medical Services for the Department of Veteran Affairs for outpatient care and treatment for veterans.

McCain voted against an amendment offered by Senator Dodd that called for an additional $322 million for safety equipment for troops in Iraq.

McCain voted against increasing the amount available for medical care for veterans by $650 million.

McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006.
McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005.
In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.

[LawyerMama]

Wonderful post. I couldn't agree more. My brother is currently in the Middle East and NOT voting for McCain. I wrote about something similar a few days ago as well.

http://momocrats.typepad.com/momocrats/2008/08/republicans-don.html

[sowhatdemos]

My first husband turned into a biker, I got over scooter trash years ago. Most of them are drunks, druggies, low life rednecks, gun & confederate flag owners and completely stupid about world affairs. They are also racists who would vote for the devil (oops! '00, '04) over an African American man. Even though Barack is the most brilliant politician of our generation.
Before I get screamed at!! - There may be some motorcycle owners who are not scooter trash but I have met none of them.

[luckyt]

I have an ex brother- in-law, who left my sister after 30 years of marriage for a friends wife whom he met at an American Legions. This is as the VFW - dens for Republicans to hang out. He now has a Harley, puts on his leather on the weekends and pretends to be a tough guy. During the Vietnam war while my brothers and I fought as Marines he spent his time in the Air Force as a supply clerk ,state side. Now that my sister raised his kids, helps put him through collage, and had a massectomy, he pulls a John McCain on her.

[Freesia2]

Of all the issues by which I'm supposed to judge McCain as potential Presidential material, the one I can't fathom is his record with soldiers and veterans.

It's a funny thing about human nature - how some people react to a life experience, and what they take from it. McCain went through a test of fire as a POW and the result you'd expect is that it would make him more empathetic, more determined than most Senators to look out for today's soldiers....but instead it is as though his reaction is that if he could endure, then by gosh so can they. He spent five "years in a rat hole in North Vietnam" as JibJab phased it, then they ought to be tough enough to stay in the death trap of Iraq for 100. He was treated badly by a foreign government, so they should buck up to being treated badly by their own government.

His own experience seems to have done nothing but reinforce some idea of strength and self admiration that makes him view the unnecessarily bad treatment of our soldiers as nothing more than their opportunity to show they're as manly as he is.

I can't understand this. I don't want to.

[DeanieMills]

Freesia2, a friend of mine who is a therapist said exactly the same thing. There must be something to it because this is a pattern going back his entire 26 years in politics. One of the most significant things, I think, is that time and time again--repeated with the new G.I. Bill vote--when a measure was overwhelmingly approved by the vast majority of senators, and there were only a tiny handful opposed--he was almost always one of that tiny handful.

[Freesia2]

That's interesting, Mrs. Mills. And disturbing. It runs to the mindset of how an abused child so frequently grows up to be an abuser. It also thows into sharp focus that idea that many have had that McCain himself suffers from an undiagnosed form of PTSD that may skew his judgement.

My husband is particularly appalled by McCain's actions. He was a medic during Viet Nam, and was part of Operation Homecoming, flying out POWs like John McCain. He witnessed things that haunt him to this day, and that a man who experienced it, and wants to be Commander-in-Chief of soldiers could vote and respond this way angers my husband. He did work after the war in a VA hospital and became painfully aware of the needs of the men and women, both medically and socially. For him there is no excuse for McCain's record.

One hope I have is that the voting block of veterans may hold some sway in this election. They fall under many demographic groups, but at heart they wear the badge of a soldier. Some experienced the negligent treatment of veteran's after Viet Nam, and many remember the days after WWII and Korea when veteran's were given a GI Bill and help not offered as readily today. I'm hoping those memories kick in when they go to the polls.

[ButterflyWeed]

I call for a mandate on all corporations securing US military contracts in time of war to pay a flat percentage of war profits directly back in to rebuilding our VA health system.

Traumatic brain injury, burns and loss of limbs are costly to the antiquated VA system. Defense contractors should help shoulder the burden of care. Slide some of the war profits over to cover the real war losses.

[Hal Donahue - Huffpost Blogger]

Well a few weeks ago I happened to be in the great hall at Walter Reed when Obama gave his foreign policy speech. Then the elder war hero McCain came on to rebut. Lots of folks present (nearly 100) had a lot to say to the waiting crowd watching TV. Bottomline: There is near total support for Obama.

[DeanieMills]

WOW Hal, thank you for that! Walter Reed. That's saying a mouthful, for many reasons.

[dadw5boys]

Mc Cain's votes for the INCENTIVES for American Business to move offshore or overseas should be part of this political discussion!!!!

How many millions were paid to businesses to move over seas?

Remember NEIL BUSH chartering planes he filled with businessmen and flew to China and other Aisain Countries to find a place for these American Businesses to move their operations to and get cheaper labor!

[JNV]

When McCain told the Sturgis motorcycle crowd that "we're not going to pay $4 a gal because we're going to drill," was he aware that motorcycles get 35 to 40 miles to the gallon?

[shelobo]

I think the story on McCain 'pimping' his wife out,like he did it at sturgis when he volunteered her for the Ms.Buffalo Chip TOPLESS contest interesting ,wonder how the political evangelics liked that one ?The MEDIA should have been all over that one like and Indain looking for cow chips to warm the Tee-Pee. Bikers KNOW a 'POSER' when they see one and hear one ,shame that a huge percentage of those Bikers are ex-felons ! http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/mccain-voluntee.html

[alphax]

Deanie Mills I believe the great American public will not be confused in the same way the Main StreamMedia is.

They know the difference between McCain's senate record (lack of!) when it comes to vets and his record in the armed services. The fact that he gets credit for the GI Bill from GW (and never showed up to vote!) is amazing :(

[sand cat]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but remember just which "great" public got us into this mess in 2000, and - unbelievably - again in 2004. What "great" public bought all the lies when it was obvious from day one of his first campaign that Bush was lazy, dishonest, ignorant, and proud of all three. What "great" public even now seems wavering, which appears to favor Obama by only a volatile 4-5% (it may be enough for an Electoral College "landslide," as said elsewhere, but it isn't enough to convince me that a very large slice of the "great" American public isn't as lazy, ignorant, and just plain stupid as the people a whole lot of them voted for in the last two presidential elections).

If we're very, very lucky, Obama might win. And if we're even luckier, he might have a few more Democratic colleagues in Congress. But it will take a miracle for them to make any serious dent in what the Republicans have "accomplished" in the last eight years, and - if they do - the "great American public will probably vote most of them out of office in 2012!

[Freesia2]

He urged other senators to table a vote "to provide more than $1 billion for National Guard and Reserve equipment in Iraq related to SHORTAGES in helmets, tents, bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests".

Mrs. Mills, that sentence alone should be sufficient to disqualify him as a potential Commander-in-Chief. A list of things that shouldn't even be debated. These boys and girls go to fight, and their commander should want them to have anything they need to stay safe.

His voting record on military issues is a sad reflection on a man who is running as "Mr. Military". And while I respect what he went through 30 some year ago, I don't respect his dismissal of what other soldiers are going through 30 years later. He should know better. He should want better.

Please keep writing and talking about this.

[mamacat]

I am a vietnam era vet, and no way would I vote for McCain. Obama is the logical choice. (I also used to ride bikes.)

[BigCatfish]

I want to make it clear right here and now that THIS Biker does NOT love John McCain, and will start doing volunteer work for Obama this weekend.

[CrittersRTasty]

I'm not sure who you folks have been talking to, but I'm career military, surrounded all day by others who are career military and I dont know anyone who is voting for Obama.

[knighthowl]

Maybe you aren't paying attention. Maybe they know better than to tell you. I know many who will vote for the candidate who most cares for them, obviously Obama. I know many like yourself who will not. I do not understand it, but you are free to vote your choice.

[PrimaDonna526]

I too, am surrounded all day by career military (retired & active duty) because I'm on active duty. After much discussion, I don't know a single military person that plans to vote for McCain. Go Obama!!

[Rmtns]

This is one Veteran that will not be voting for McCain. Though he served, his service was undistinguished and marked by the favoritism given to an admiral's son. He was grossly unqualified to be a pilot, and would never have been one without the DNA that he carried.
He did uphold the honor of the service while he was a POW. That said, it was by no stretch of the imagination was he anything but unlucky when shot down. It was no glorious thing.
This prepared him for the undistinguished career in the Senate, marked by the taint of bribery and pandering to supporters. His flip-flops since he has become a candidate have if anything, lowered my opinion of him, if possible. His attempt at snarkiness highlights his lack of intellect and total lack of character.

[gage]

" his service was undistinguished and marked by the favoritism given to an admiral's son"

Don't make up stuff. His father was a captain when he entered Annapolis. His father didn't fly off carriers for him, and his father didn't endure years of interrogations for him. His father could have gotten him released, but he didn't. It's a grossly offensive to state otherwise.

"it was by no stretch of the imagination was he anything but unlucky when shot down. It was no glorious thing."

You think flying low-level raids over the city that had the heaviest air defenses IN HISTORY was no big deal? You dishonor all the pilots who were lost doing so. Why would you want to insult the hundreds of pilots who were killed or captured over N Vietnam?

[mamacat]

How could his father have gotten him released from a North Vietnamese POW camp? Who is making stuff up? What have you got against us veterans?

[Rmtns]

Dear gage,
As a repuglickin troll, you should be careful of calling bs when you are in the wrong. Dear Johnnie was in the BOTTOM 1% of his class at Annapolis, and Naval aviator slots are given to the very best and brightest (usually). He also crashed more than one jet, (which will in normal circumstances result in a pilot being removed from flying status) yet he remained on duty. Was it because he was "career tracked"? McCain is nothing but a "Perfumed Prince" , a fast tracked, given every advantage, incompetent fool, who admittedly had a very unfortunate five years. Being held prisoner does nothing to qualify him as Commander in chief, If it had, there are numerous men who served with as much dignity and honor as he did, yet have upheld their honor AFTER they came home, unlike McCain who divorced his disabled wife who had stood by him in his darkest days, to marry a rodeo queen. Then there's they Keating 5 scandal, the vote against MLK day, TRhe continuing votes against the National Guard necessary equipment, the votes against funding the VA,and votes to defund the military. He's an empty suit, as your posts on John edwards show that you are. Have a nice day.