It All Circles Around to Vietnam

I was listening to the Oregon Public Broadcasting program "Think Out Loud" the other day and they had on two McCain representatives who are veterans to talk about McCain's military experience and his current war policies. Unfortunately, neither was a very solid speaker, jumping from talking point to talking point, including dissing on Obama for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance (sigh).

The bit I caught involved talking about how McCain's Vietnam experience have prepared him to take over the War in Iraq.

There was the interesting assertion that those who have seen combat from ground level have some innate sense of war that allows them to make more correct decisions about war later on. This comment, unfortunately, went unchallenged, but I'd love to hear the rationale.

Then there was the assertion that men who have seen combat are more likely to know the horror of war and be more reticent to get involved in war. The host asked how this assertion squared with McCain's pledge to increase troop levels in Iraq verses Obama and Clinton's intentions to begin withdrawal of troops. The responder started rambling about how Iraq and Vietnam are two completely different wars, incomparable in his mind, because, you see Johnson was trying to appeal to the hawks and the doves at the same time, so he was...at this point the host cut him off and repeated her question about the apparent contradiction. The guest responded with, and I am not making this up, that the way he saw it was that all the talk of withdrawal would embolden the terrorists, just like it did the North Vietnamese.

At that point, I switched the channel.

But I expect we're going to hear a lot more about how John knows war! meaning both that he is the most likely to win the war and the most likely to withdraw the troops as soon as possible.