'The election is not about Vietnam'

[realFedUp]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17528

Ellen Terich: 'The election is not about Vietnam'
Date: Monday, August 23 @ 10:13:59 EDT
Topic: Election 2004

By Ellen Terich

While an over-the-hill group of men are obsessing about a war that ended nearly 40 years ago, the issues of concern to women, children and ordinary citizens of all ages are being ignored.

While a crazed coterie of old warriors bring up a long buried and once controversial period of time in our nation's history in order to smear John Kerry, we have lost sight of the things that really matter today: health care; jobs; the budget deficit; education; terrorism; and all the issues that concern our children's future.

The Republicans are doing it once again: using an irrelevant issue to try to win an election. They used a longstanding prison furlough policy in Massachusetts to demonize Michael Dukakis with the infamous "Willie Horton" ads. The dishonest ads worked and the Republicans won the White House.

snip-

So why are we wasting our time arguing about John Kerry's war record when we should be talking about who has a better plan to lead the country? Because George W. Bush is losing, cannot match John Kerry's military service, and is unpopular with the majority of Americans. The people have finally caught on: George W. Bush robs the poor to give tax cuts to the rich; he has created an enormous deficit that our children will pay for; he has led us into an immoral war and a failed and costly project of nation building; he is hurting education, the environment, and the middle class. If he can put Kerry on the defensive about something, if he can change the subject so that Americans are debating whether John Kerry is a liar (even though George W. Bush himself lied about his own military record) rather than about the Iraq war or the economy, he can distract everyone from the real issues, create doubt and even foster hate.
continued...

[stellanoir]

1. Amen to that

[still_one]

2. In a way the issue is about Viet Nam

Are we going to make the same mistake we made in Viet Name with Iraq. It sure looks that way, no matter who is president. Both wars were based on a lie.

Incidently, don't flame me, I am 110% behind Kerry, but the similarities between how we got into Nam, and the majority of people still believing that Iraq was an immenient threat and had WMD

[realFedUp]

3. you have a valid point

I think the author is just trying to say
besides war and terrorism, there are domestic
issues that touch more lives than the above
mentioned.

[yelladawg]

4. All issues should be looked at

Nam will be a big item. It can't be hidden.

[realFedUp]

5. Maybe to Vets

but not really to anyone else....

It's tragic that we are still re-hashing that war.