John McCain is Anti-War

A new poll shows that U.S. Troops support John McCain 3-1.

A poll by the Military Times newspaper group suggests that there is overwhelming support for John McCain among U.S. troops in every branch of the armed forces by a nearly 3-1 margin.

According to the poll, 68 percent of active-duty and retired servicemen and women support McCain, while 23 percent support Barack Obama. The numbers are nearly identical among officers and enlisted troops.

Click here to see the raw data.

The Military Times, which publishes the Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times and Air Force Times, polled 80,000 subscribers from Sept 22 to Sept. 29. The non-scientific survey gathered 4,300 respondents -- all of them registered and eligible to vote.

A racial divide was immediately evident among the respondents. Nearly eight in 10 black servicemembers chose Obama, while McCain captured 76 percent of white voters and 63 percent of Hispanic voters.

Members of the U.S. military overwhelming support John McCain.

The poll shows that some of that support has to do with McCain's years of distinguished service in the military and the incredible personal sacrifice he made for our country.

But it's not as if the troops are backing McCain solely because he once served in the military and Barack Obama never did.

The troops are choosing to support McCain because they believe he would do a better job handling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, handling military personnel issues, such as pay and benefits, and handling Defense Department issues, such as weapons
purchases, the size of the armed forces and national security strategy.

In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today, Patrick McIlheran compares McCain and Obama on the question of war, citing Obama's poor judgment and misguided policies.

McIlheran writes:

McCain is more convincingly anti-war, saying, “It’s terrible beyond imagination.” Given his Hanoi captivity, he probably means it. What’s more, he grasps that the best way to stay out of future wars is to avoid losing current ones.

This is what the surge question tells us. McCain, seeing that the Bush strategy was losing in Iraq, pushed the president to change it. By contrast, Obama committed early to the view that the war was unwinnable, the surge doomed. “There are no good options left,” he said in late 2006, “no military solution.” Better, he said, for the United States to flee on a schedule.

That is, take a loss, if that was the price of ending the war.

I do not think this was because Obama wanted America to lose. I do not think he dislikes America or is unpatriotic.

It suggests, however, that he could not see how the liberation of Iraq could succeed, and he did not care to find out. Worse, he did not see the meaning of an American loss.

Osama bin Laden did. In 2001, he said how inspiring our failure in Somalia was: “We found they had no power worthy of mention,” he told al-Jazeera. Obama likes to point out that al-Qaida wasn’t in Iraq until we overthrew Hussein. But that is irrelevant now: The question is whether, once they’ve arrived, the U.S. skedaddles.

Had Bush done as Obama sought, Iraq’s dissolution into chaos would warn any other country that America’s arrival heralds doom. It would repeat the lesson of Vietnam, that Americans run and one had best not be on their side. That surrender ended a war but set off a series of new ones in unexpected places.

I, too, think that McCain is more convincingly anti-war. His judgment is sound. On the surge, he didn't take the easy path and allow himself to be swayed by popular opinion. He took a principled stand and did what he believed was right.

Of course, he was right and Barack Obama was wrong.

On matters of war, Obama is terribly inconsistent and unquestionably untested.

As McCain said often in the first debate, Obama doesn't understand. True. Obama doesn't understand. That's the reality and that's the problem.

Obama and many of his Leftist cohorts have failed to learn the lessons of the past.

Somalia. Somalia. Somalia.

In December 1992, bin Laden found the battle he'd been waiting for. The United States was leading a UN-sanctioned rescue mission into Somalia. In the midst of a famine, the country's government had completely broken down, and warring tribes-largely Muslim--had cut off relief efforts by humanitarian groups. Somalians were starving to death in cities and villages, and the U. S., which had moved quickly to rescue oil-rich Kuwait, had come under mounting criticism for doing nothing.

When the Marines landed in the last days of 1992, bin Laden sent in his own soldiers, armed with AK-47's and rocket launchers. Soon, using the techniques they had perfected against the Russians, they were shooting down American helicopters. The gruesome pictures of the body of a young army ranger being dragged naked through the streets by cheering crowds flashed around the world. The yearlong American rescue mission for starving Somalians went from humanitarian effort to quagmire in just three weeks. Another superpower humiliated. Another bin Laden victory.

"After leaving Afghanistan, the Muslim fighters headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking that the Americans were like the Russians," bin Laden said. "The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldier was a paper tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat. And America forgot all the hoopla and media propaganda ... about being the world leader and the leader of the New World Order, and after a few blows they forgot about this title and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat."

Bottom line: McCain gets it. Obama does not.

Joe Biden put Americans on notice. An Obama presidency means an international crisis is guaranteed.

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy," said Biden to a roomful of donors. "The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America."

"Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said," Biden continued. "Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

"I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it's going happen. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate."

..."I promise you, you all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down, why is this thing so tough?' We're going have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years," said Biden. "I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you're going to have to reinforce us."

A test?

No, thank you.

It's doesn't have to be that way.

There won't be a "generated crisis" to test McCain's mettle. He's been tested.

I prefer to skip the international crisis. I don't want the country to endure trauma because Obama's mettle needs to be put to the test.

I trust McCain with the nation's security.

I have no faith in Obama's ability to make the right decisions. We cannot risk the consequences of electing Obama.