WAR HEROES IN POLITICS

The other day, my son, a Republican, sent me a photo of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his Air Force uniform, by a jet fighter plane, at age 22.

I guess we are supposed to get down on our knees in an attitude of worship.

Next to that photo was one of Barack Obama, age 22, with a cigarette in his mouth and a straw hat on his head, apparently lounging on vacation.

I guess we are supposed to think Obama was less patriotic at that age.

Someone has written that this picture says more than a thousand words.

I think this is supposed to mean that Rick Perry is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama.

Here is what I wrote to my son in reply:

There is a kind of symbolism here that I don't think makes sense.

In the military, they teach you to shoot people, to drop bombs, to throw grenades, to march, to repair tanks and airplanes, and mostly to obey orders.   

You are supposed to become a kind of human robot. How does that qualify anyone to be a political leader? Do we need robots to lead us?

These military people are supposed to "salute smartly and charge up the hill," in Oliver North's famous phrase.

I don't see how military service is desirable above other qualities in a leader. I would think intelligence, vision of the future, and understanding complex political, economic and legal systems would be more important.

-- Pops

In another e-mail, after thinking about it some more, I wrote:

It is interesting to think about the war hero as politician. Why did John Kerry's military experience count for so little? Why did John McCain's count for so much?

Kerry was actually in combat, getting shot at and shooting back, while his opponent, George W. Bush, avoided his own military service. But it didn't matter, somehow. The GOP "Swift Boat" lie won out.

McCain's job in the Navy was to lobby Congress. So he wined and dined senators and congressmen, to get them to spend more money on the Navy. He was very successful. He was a good salesman.

Did that qualify him to be president? How so? When he was young, he was a hotshot jet jockey before he got shot down. Not much leadership there. More testosterone than political genius.

We think of a man in a military uniform as strong, macho, patriotic, self-sacrificing, full of ideals. That is not always the case.

I flew to Colorado recently, next to a captain in the Air Force who was a good guy, but he was obviously working the system a little bit, for his own gain. Nothing illegal or unethical, but out for himself. Nothing wrong with that. I'd do it myself.

But would he make a better president than a graduate of Harvard Law School who taught Constitutional Law at Chicago?

I doubt it.

--Pops

After that, I had another thought: I wouldn't vote for my Uncle Bill, even though I admired him all the time I was growing up and he was the family hero during WWII.

Uncle Bill was a career Marine, fought in the Pacific, and was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism on Iwo Jima.

Years later, after I had grown up, and he had retired as a Lt. Col., we were driving along the street together in New Orleans, in about 1990, and we saw a homeless man on the street.

Bill said, "I've got the solution to this homeless problem."

I said, "What's that, Bill?"

"Gas 'em."

I said, "You're kidding, right?"

"No," Bill said. "If they can't work, or they won't work, round 'em up and gas 'em."

There's a war hero with a political solution for you.

Would I vote for that? Not in this lifetime. Or any other.

So just because Rick Perry was in the Air Force, that doesn't cut any ice with me.

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle