--- Bryon Daly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What's the main reason for that, do you think, > Gautam? Kerry's > post-Vietnam anti-war activities? The Swift-boat > stuff? Of the few > vets I know, none seem to care as much as I would > have thought about > the Vietnam-era stuff. Or is it just distrust of > his policies?
I think it's a combination of a few things. The first time I heard about Kerry's Vietnam War activities was from a security guard in my old office, who was a 20 year Navy vet (and registered Democrat) who _hated_ John Kerry and told me that he was sure that Kerry's medals were invalid. I completely disagreed with him and thought this was just old service gossip. Possibly he should have been the consultant and I should have been the security guard. The second is the generalized distance between the Democratic Party and the military since Vietnam, as much of the military feels (rightly or wrongly) that the American left turned against the armed forces then, and things haven't changed since. I still hear people talking about the Clinton staffer who told Barry McCaffrey "I don't talk to people in uniform." So it's distrust of his policies, too. Beyond that...well, Sam Huntington's first big book, _The Soldier and the State_, talked about the natural conservatism of successful militaries. Huntington, as always, had a point (even if I don't agree with everything he said, but hey, he's got more political science talent in his pinkie finger than I do in my whole body, so I disagree with caution), and it's still true today. > Why would Wes Clark alienate the military even more > than Kerry? I'd put it this way. I know ~10 senior officers (counting active duty and retired generals, colonels, and lieutenant colonels) well enough that I feel comfortable asking them about their political views and their opinions of their fellow officers. I'm being unspecific to preserve their anonymity, since these were all personal conversations. They _all_ have a low opinion of Wes Clark. One whom I've known for five years has only once, in that entire time, said anything personally critical about _anyone_ to me, and that person was Wes Clark. For several of them, the word "despise" comes to mind to describe their feelings. "Arrogant", "self-absorbed", "not a team player", "abusive to subordinates", etc. are used with some frequency. I've never met the man myself, so I can't comment in person, but these are all people I respect - two of them are among the five people I most respect on earth - and at least one of them is a fairly major Kerry supporter (and so hardly a Republican partisan) and they really, really, really opposed Clark's run for the Presidency. So in Kerry's case, it's a combination of politics and personality. In Clark's case, I don't think they _cared_ about his politics, they just knew the guy. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
