Dunn’s Civics > 2008 Presidential Election

REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA MEMORNADUM TO
THE CAMPAIGN

Oct 2008

Senator McCain has gone to great lengths to separate himself from the abominable legacy of the Bush Presidency. But one of the most damaging chapters in that legacy was co-written by the Senator. 

No member of the Senate was more conversant with the requirements to prepare and to care for the troops in war than John McCain. No member of the Senate knew more about the value of the latest American technology to fight and to survive on the modern battlefield than John McCain. No member of the Senate knew more about the uncertainty, the fog of war than John McCain. No Member of the United States Senate knew more about the national division created when those who serve us all are divorced from those who are never asked for sacrifice. 

John McCain has been supported by the American taxpayer for every day of his seventy two years. He was a recipient of a Naval Academy Appointment. He served in combat. He has served on the Senate Armed Services Committee for over twenty years. John McCain’s “something larger than himself” is the United States Military. But he let down our troops by sending them to war unready to maximize their survivability. And he let them down by failing to insure that upon their return they were not ignored. 

The restoration of our young veterans to the place they must assume in our society if we are to recover from the calamity of the Bush years will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and great understanding by all Americans. But if we pay the price and extend our hands, those veterans will reward us with a citizenship that will help lead us to unity and security at home and leadership in the world. John McCain has made those obligations, even upon our veterans’ return, very difficult to realize.