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I Hope McCain Is Not Planning On the Veteran Vote
by James Glaser May 20, 2008 This past weekend I traveled to Pensacola and spent the night at a motel in Crestview, Florida on the way there. As we drove up to our room, we found there were four motorcycles parked in front of our door. We parked down the way, and carried our bags in. I noticed one bike had a Marine Corps flag on the back. Wanda stayed in the room, and I went out to talk to the Marine. It turned out that three of the bikes were owned by Vietnam veteran Marines, and the fourth was owned by an Army vet. These four guys belonged to a group called Rolling Thunder. That is a vet group that works hard on the POW/MIA issue and does all sorts of volunteer work at Veteran hospitals. So we had us a nice time talking about our time in the service, the VA system, and politics. These guys were headed to a State chapter meeting and decided to spend the night in Crestview. We all agreed that the VA Hospital system was screwed up and that so many Iraqi vets would have been dead in any other war, but in this war, they have been kept alive to live a life that will require almost total care by the VA. They told me many stories about guys that were in a traumatic brain injury ward at the VA in Tampa, and how hard it was on those veterans' loved ones. When the talking got around to politics, I found out these guys loathed John McCain and they went on and on about how he and John Kerry screwed over every POW, MIA group in America. They went on to say that these two Senators got most of the POW files classified so that the American people will never know the true story. With out a doubt, these guys hate John McCain, and maybe "hate" is not a strong enough word, These veterans are not being silent about how they feel about McCain. I'm not saying they are going to vote for Obama or Hillary, but I can pretty much guarantee they will not be voting for McCain. In fact, they are going to actively try to educate every veteran they can that John McCain is not to be trusted. Monday I was having a test at the Gainesville VA Hospital. The test was in the Nuclear Medicine Clinic, and I was there from 9am till 1pm. I talked to a lot of vets, and so many of them had already been told about McCain, and how he is no friend of the veteran. Every Iraqi vet there knew McCain was trying to stop the new GI Bill legislation that is in Congress now. I am sure that there are a lot of uninformed vets that are thinking of voting for McCain because he is a veteran and his time as a POW. However, guys from Rolling Thunder are going to be talking to fellow veterans between now and the election trying to make sure as many vets as can be are educated about what John McCain has done to the POWs and MIAs that these people were left in Vietnam. You won't get any of this in the media you read or watch in television, but try to Google McCain and the POW issue. You will quickly realize there are a lot of angry people out there. There are Senators and Representatives who are willing to say what they know is true about how McCain silenced every POW group, and how badly he treated the parents and loved ones of those missing in action. After you read about the real John McCain, you won't vote for the man either. |
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