Veteran, vets' advocate: McCain's war posturing killing morale for troops Nick Langewis and David Edwards

Published: Thursday June 12, 2008



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Print This Email This The "surge" is working, we are winning in Iraq, and it's "not too important" as to when the troops will be returning home, Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain (R-AZ) said this week. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), or McCain's "dog's body," as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann refers to him, portrayed McCain as a particular authority on the Iraq occupation based on his service in Vietnam. McCain's potential position of power as Commander-in-Chief and his experience in combat give his words extra power to disappoint the troops that hear his projections, and he should know better, said Brandon Friedman, Vice Chairman of VoteVets and a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. "Keith, this is a morale crusher," Friedman said. "If you can imagine, say, a sergeant, who's on his third tour, and he's in the fourteenth month of that tour, and he hears the potential President say something like this, it kills morale. "The troops over there hang on every word they hear from a leader...especially the Commander-in-Chief, but also someone who could be the Commander-in-Chief. And when they hear something like this, it really kills them on the inside because, you know, their families want them home--they want to come home--or focus on the real Global War on Terror elsewhere." Olbermann asked: "Does it matter more that they are abandoned by a John McCain who did serve as opposed to a George Bush who did not?" "Absolutely, Keith," Friedman said. "We've come to not expect a whole lot from George W. Bush. But, when you have a veteran like John McCain who has gone through so much in Vietnam, you really expect a lot more out of him...He should know better. And, for those of us who have been there and who have lived through this, we just would expect a lot more, and it really saddens us to see this happen, because there are thousands and thousands of veterans who just disagree with him on this." This video is from MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, broadcast June 11, 2008.

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