BrianGarst.com

Following Senator Harkin’s baffling attempt at using McCain’s military service to disqualify him from the Presidency, I dispatched the following email:

Senator Harkin,

Your recent comments regarding Senator McCain’s military service, and the impact it has on his qualifications for the office of President of the United States, were disgraceful and unbecoming of your office. They reflect a tragically misguided and negative view of the men and women who serve in our armed forces.

According to your statements, you consider it “dangerous” that military personnel, having outlooks shaped by their service, might be elected President. This sentiment flies in the face of our nation’s history. To date, twenty-one Presidents have had combat experience, while many more served but saw no combat.

You further contended that volunteering for service, or coming from a family with a history of such, is a greater disqualification for office than having been drafted. I am having trouble apprehending the logic, and I use that term loosely, which leads you to conclude that volunteering to serve ones country suggests a character unfit for the Presidency. In my experience it is the career military personnel, and in particular those who come from a long line of such service, who exhibit the greatest willingness to place the welfare of others above their own. Perhaps to you and your party this is not a desirable characteristic; for the rest of us it is essential.

Your statements are all the more confusing when considered in the context of previous accusations. You once labeled the Vice President a coward for not serving in Vietnam, and then sanctimoniously declared that he and President Bush were “running scared because John Kerry has a war record and they don’t.”

Having a track record of distorting your own service, among numerous other things, for personal gain, it comes as no surprise to me that you would now contradict your previous positions and disparage fellow servicemen for partisan gain. If you had half as much honor as the average servicemen, you’d resign after disgracing yourself in such a manner. I’m not holding my breath.

A disgusted civilian,
Brian Garst