vietnam

I first cast my vote in an election in 1972. I was living on an Air Force Base in Japan and voted by absentee ballot for George McGovern. One of a very small minority that election year.

George McGovern once joked that he had wanted to run for president in the worst way — and that he had done so.

Read about Sen. McGovern at WRAL.com.

We have already seen some impressive efforts in this campaign season to do a bit of résumé padding, particularly as it regards things military; so far Illinois’ Mark Kirk has managed to turn himself into a kind of camouflage Austin Powers, while Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal’s trying to catch up with some “Vietnam” service of his own that no one else in the theater of operations exactly knew about.

But now, in the race for Alabama Governor, we may have seen something that takes us to a whole new level of “inflation”: the Republican candidate is running an ad that not only suggests that he served in Vietnam…it seems to imply that he actually died there, and has now come back to save the State.

Which is some serious irony indeed, considering that the candidate is actually a medical doctor.

And with that, let me introduce you to the either living…or undead…Dr. Robert J. Bentley.

The beginning of this is an attempt to bring you up to speed on what has been going on this past year leading up to the purpose of this post, a New Investigation on Veterans Care, and the request for those listed in the subject title to get involved with, especially the Veterans having their troubles with the VA and their Care.

My open feud with the News and Observer's editorial pages goes back a couple of years when the paper gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt regarding the his war in Iraq. The N&O wasn't exactly a cheerleader, and in his personal columns, Steve Ford often wondered about the long-term consequences of military action. But neither was the paper a strong and vocal critic of Bush's disastrous foreign policy.

Today's lead editorial is more of the same. The paper calls George Bush out on his stunning hypocrisy, but still holds on to the delusion of hope that something called "success" can emerge from the ashes of Iraq.

Presidential hopeful Romney, like all Republican candidates, vigorously supported sending more of our loved ones to Iraq. During his recent "Ask Mitt Anything" tour in Bettendorf, Iowa he was asked: "Are any of your five sons currently serving in the United States military and if not, are any of them planning to support the war on terror by enlisting in the United States Military?" Romney's answer below the fold...

A recent college graduate and newly minted ROTC 2nd LT in January, 1965, I reported to Ft. Bliss Texas and joined about 50 others to start my Officers Basic Class in Air Defense Artillery (ADA). A few months later I was assigned to a STRAC (Strategic Army Corp - combat groups designated to be ready to go anywhere in the world in 72hrs) HAWK missile battalion at Ft. Bliss. The next month or so was intense. We lived in the desert...moving, setting up, and running ORE's. (Operational Readiness Evaluations). Sleeping in the desert in a bag on the sand is a treat...snakes, bugs, and cold...not to mention the blowing, stinging, sand.