Personally, I don’t always agree with John Warner’s politics, but I don’t question his patriotism.
Mr. Warner is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He volunteered both times and put his education on hold both times to serve his country. There aren’t many of those in DC.
I understand why you feel as you do toward anyone who serves this country. However, Warner recently said that he “remembered” how difficult it was when people came to his office asking for more and more troops for Viet Nam.
He was not in a position at the time to have anyone come to him with such a request. He was lying. That is unforgivable. It tells me all I need to know about John Warner.
IMHO you appear to be the one who has confused patriotism with good judgment. Please, as a personal favor: do not preach to me. Thanks.
I'm not accusing Warner of treason, but if he was acting out of patriotism, he would have made his views known to the President in private, not plastered on network TV for the whole world, including our enemies, to see.
Mr. Warner is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He volunteered both times and put his education on hold both times to serve his country. There aren’t many of those in DC.
I don't question his patriotism. I do question his judgment and, most particularly, his memory.
Warner was Secretary of the Navy under Richard Nixon so he should have a better perspective on these types of conflicts than he apparently has. Midway through Nixon's time in office he switched commanders and tactics in Vietnam from one of large military ground offensives primarily using US forces to counter insurgency, just as we have now set up with Patraeus and the surge, which has always been planned as a temporary fix to buy breathing room. Then as now the counter insurgency strategy turned things in our favor in purely military terms, largely eliminating the Vietcong's ability to stage effective operations. Then as now they could stage spectaculars for the beneift of their allies in the press, but they couldn't take and hold ground. South Vietnam was largely able to fend off the VC and North Vietnamese on the ground with our (substantial) air and naval support and might have continued on indefinitely, much the way South Korea has, with minimal United States military and logistical assistance, but the Congress decided they didn't like the imperfect and corrupt South Vietnamese government and voted to cut off all aid and to break our defense treaty with them. The North Vietnamese regular army then invaded and conquered the South. Not a civil war, a conquest.
If we repeat history and abandon the Iraqi government, no matter how imperfect, we will see Iranian and Syrian regular military forces move in and conquer the country and impose a monstrous theocratic regime that threatens the entire region, if not the world.
And Warner either forgot that lesson or wasn't bright enough to learn it in the first place. In either case he is clearly not qualified to set policy in these matters.
But I don't question his patriotism.
Warner is a great example of the past not being prelude to the future.