Vietnam, which figured prominently in the 2004 presidential campaign, has surfaced again as a volatile issue as the McCain and Obama camps square off. Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark's recent remarks about Sen. John McCain's service not necessarily qualifying him to become president have enraged the McCain camp, inside sources report. Apparently, a McCain "Truth Squad" is now contemplating countering by alleging that Obama's true vulnerability isn't that he didn't see action in Vietnam, but that he did -- on the side of America's enemies.
The gist of the accusation seems to be that as a lad in Indonesia, Obama did not, in fact, attend a madrassa, as some have alleged, but instead was a lousy student who refused to hit the books and played hooky. The contention is that, eager for adventure and excitement, he hot-footed it to the war zone sometime in 1971 as a ten-year-old and wound up in North Vietnam, where he became enamored of anti-war singers such as Joan Baez and Hollywood stars like Jane Fonda. He is also said to have been influenced by the writer Mary McCarthy, who traveled to Vietnam several times. Obama's critics now trace his elitism and later association with radicals such as William Ayers to these formative experiences, which are said to have imbued him with a deep and abiding mistrust of American values and patriotism.
Indeed, grainy photographs from the early 1970s showing a small child supposedly resembling a young Obama handing Viet Cong soldiers soft drinks and other snack foods have begun to circulate on the internet. One caption says that Obama's childhood name "Barry" really referred to his readiness to supply soldiers with berries from the countryside. McCain aides refused to comment, but groups close to the campaign are said to be scouring the archives for possible pictures of Obama working on farms in Cuba as well, figuring that they might help put Florida in play again. One GOP consultant who insisted on anonymity declared, "look, he may sound appealing enough, but he's always just been a bad apple." Though Obama himself dismissed the photos today as the kind of politics his campaign seeks to transcend and as "rotten to the core," the controversy has indubitably enlivened what is turning out to be a bruising campaign by further pitting the two camps against each other.
Well done!
Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle and Dick Cheney claim there is ‘conclusive evidence’ that it was a young Obama who convinced his pal Pol Pot to greatly increase the requirements for membership in the Khmer Rouge in 1971. Both being the lousy students they were, they also claim Barrack and Pot got on like a house on fire now rejecting students, intellectuals and so-called middle peasants from joining.
With Barrack now the sophisticated intellect honed in the jungles of Cambodia with the Communist Party of Kampuchea, The McCain campaign now hopes to capitalize on this 37-year-old Obama ‘flip-flop’.
One can only fight this comical notion with humor . . . and McCain started it. Publicly uttering the phrase ‘truth squad’ with a straight face.
Funny stuff.
I was born in Serey Sophorn, Cambodia in 1976, and am a land refugee. My family and I left Cambodia due to the Khmer Rouge. I have been in the US for about 20 years now and I have never felt the desire to become a citizen until I heard about Barack Obama; he inspired me. I filed for citizenship earlier this year and because I was frustrated that I couldn't vote for him I became one of his small donation donors.
After reading this article, I now will make another donation to Barack Obama.
In the meantime, the nonsense that is coming out on Obama is past ridiculous. If people are stupid enough to believe this crap, then they deserve what they get. The clue should be that none of the really crazy stuff has appeared on the major news.
I admire his willingness to serve and his loyalty as a POW. Those are powerful things. BUt a great military leader? I don't think so. Most guys aren't, and that doesn't mean they can't be heros and courageous. My son is in Iraq and I can say unequivocally that he is not a great leader, but, man! I admire him for doing what he's doing.