The Men Who Would Be CINC
Babbin, Jed
/ f the Democrats learned anything from the 2002 election, it's that Americans don't want the draft-dodging antiwar San Francisco Democrats leading them now. It's the war, stupid, and anyone who...
...The most immediately credible Democratic replacement would be someone who once was a warrior...
...The ICC is supposed to try and punish war crimes cases that aren't otherwise tried and punished by the nation whose troops are charged...
...But in his rush to enter the race, he has made a number of revealing comments...
...3) mixed-gender training...
...But a lot will change between now and November 2004...
...How then do these CINC wannabes measure up...
...But perhaps the biggest strike against Lieberman is the fact he was Al Gore's running mate, vowing to extend the Clinton years...
...Such a man will have a hard time earning the trust of the military pros...
...It's a little thing, but it means a lot...
...Even George Bush hasn't had the political clout to reverse nonsense such as mixed-gender training, which remains the order of the day everywhere in the U.S...
...What we can do is rate the Dems who would be CINC on how well they understand and can relate to the culture and power of the military—how the military can be used as a tool of foreign policy, and how professional soldiers will regard them...
...The terrorist training camp at Salman Pak, near Baghdad, has hosted nearly all of them...
...What's a good liberal to do...
...They went, but they never knew why...
...Kerry, in fact, was Clinton before Clinton was Clinton: in 1991, he was already pushing for homosexuals to serve openly in the military...
...The troops now in Kuwait and the Middle East know their president believes in them and the cause...
...Though they lack Kerry's military background, most of them served in Congress during the Clinton years...
...The fear that these policies would be expanded under any new Democratic president is very real...
...In a slower time, Lieberman could be one of those...
...big perhaps?ith more experience Mr...
...None of that rings true to the troops...
...Al?h well...
...But the fact that he did it when Clinton was misusing the military to stall his own impeachment is a sin unpardonable to the military...
...The military's Clinton-era problems can be boiled down to six issues: (1) the "Don't ask, don't tell" rule regarding homosexuals...
...He's predictably dovish on Iraq...
...Those are medals you don't win by sitting behind a typewriter...
...J oe Lieberman, once called "Mr...
...But he just isn't ready for military prime time...
...When the president of the United States disembarks from Marine One, a Marine in dress blues stands at attention on the forward side of the helicopter's stairs, saluting as the CINC comes out...
...We call upon young men to fight...
...Clinton famously wagged the dog just before the House was scheduled to vote on the articles of impeachment...
...As then-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Graham knew better, and in his statement shows a level of na?et?worthy of Madeleine Albright, and a disingenuousness worthy of her former boss...
...This past October, Bob Graham displayed an amazing lack of understanding of the relationship between the war against terror and the need to remove Saddam Hussein...
...The biggest reason for the military's distrust of Kerry is his beyond-Clintonian contempt for the troops...
...In the end, Lieberman?ertainly the most hawkish of the five?ould earn the respect of the military and lead us in a war...
...Hundreds of the best simply walked away during the Clinton years...
...We got a strong weapons-inspection resolution...
...The enemy has brought this war to us, and may have as good an ability to continue doing so as we have to preventit...
...Clinton wanted to keep the dog's tail wagging: "We should not take up impeachment until the hostilities have ended...
...The currerrt squad boasts one, JFK...
...No one's been drafted since 1973 and—despite the recent frolic and detour into that issue by Rep...
...Only when the Bush administration sought somethinganything?o do on the subject did the idea move forward...
...They regard him so highly because he is truthful with them, respects them, and believes in the cause they're fighting for...
...T he Clinton era's social experimentation in the military mostly remains in place, to only the private complaint of the professionals...
...That same judgment came independently from a Marine whose Vietnam service was as tough or tougher than Kerry's...
...Co-ed basic training, another key element of the Clinton agenda, has led directly to reduced training standards, morale problems, and declined military capabilities...
...More recently, Lieberman voted in favor of subjecting American troops to the jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court...
...During the Clinton years, soldiers, sailors, and airmen were sent abroad, sometimes under UN command, to keep the peace where there wasn't any...
...And don't forget The Reverend—no, not Jesse Jackson: Al Sharpton, who has already proclaimed himself the best qualified of all...
...All the services that knuckled under to the Clintons' deconstruction of the military culture lost too many good people and had a tough time recruiting back as many as they need...
...Careful where you dig that foxhole soldier, and don't disturb the spotted owl nest in that tree next to you...
...2) women in combat...
...His sincerity cannot be doubted, but he had his facts wrong...
...A key fact about America's military is that it is an all-volunteer force...
...One former guest of the Hanoi Hilton told me he held Kerry in only slightly higher regard than Hanoi Jane...
...interest existed...
...On December 16, 1998, Clinton commenced air strikes on Baghdad...
...But his track record since isn't encouraging...
...The serving military harbors a profound distrust of Kerry and not because he's a pureas-Ivory-soap liberal...
...His public statements and trial-lawyer manner bring to mind one of Ronald Reagan's best lines...
...In December, Edwards made a quick foray to London...
...Only Senator Edwards, who began his Senate term in 1999, arrived too late to have much of a track record on these issues...
...and (6) the International Criminal Court...
...Dean that we haven't seen from Mr...
...When we vote in 2004, we need to pick someone who will keep those Marines turning...
...Do any of the Democratic contenders make the grade...
...During the Clinton era, they all developed a very sensitive nose for baloney...
...A custom dating back to the days of John Paul Jones requires that when the commanding officer?n this case, the president?asses, the Marine guard turns, keeping his face pointed toward the president, as if to receive orders and as a sign of respect...
...His ACLU and NARAL ratings are exactly the same as those of Teddy Kennedy and Babs Boxer...
...assachusetts Senator John Kerry stands alone among the Democ..ratic contenders as a combat veteran...
...Charlie Rangel—we aren't about to...
...The military people I spoke with have little regard for those who went far beyond what they had to do in opposing Clinton's impeachment...
...Dean has managed to get an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association in the same lifetime he signed into law legislation that legalized same-sex "unions?' He also pushed hard for state-provided health insurance for almost every Vermonter under the age of eighteen...
...I asked both him and Gov...
...Edwards is a trial attorney who made his pile handling personal injury cases?ittle more need be said...
...Even Georgia congressman Max Cleland—who lost his legs fighting in Vietnam—was beaten in 2002 because he stuck to the SFD's line that union jobs were more important than the president's demand for a homeland security bill...
...How he would deal with international crises or use the levers of American power are things we'll just have to guess...
...All this was coupled with continued cuts in the military budgets, so Pentagon planners went by the credo of "doing more with less...
...Somehow, Dr...
...Now, Kerry makes much of his war record...
...Edwards could become a credible CINC...
...But that's old news...
...And then there are the straight negatives...
...But any doubts that if another attack occurs, they will condemn Mr...
...Integrity" for having been the first Dem to take to the floor of the Senate to criticize Lil' Billy's priapic perjury, has toed the Clinton line when it comes to the military...
...But as the troops found out, sometimes you can only do less with less...
...And condemned his country for all that and more: We rationalized destroying villages in order to save them...
...Some men who fight through one war have the ability to fight another...
...So what are the Dem candidates doing...
...Neither Dean nor Edwards, by contrast, is a Metternichs in the making...
...Edwards's talent is essential to a trial lawyer, but a large disabling factor in a wartime leader...
...This is a very sore subject with the military, which views the ICC correctly?s a different set of laws and standards than they are entitled to under the U.S...
...All of them are lining up to criticize Mr...
...He told me, "Scratch that individual and watch an opportunist bleed...
...Being president in the first decade of the 21st century means being commander in chief of the first U.S...
...Graham dozens of times, Saddam is actively engaged with and connected to terrorist groups, ranging from al-Qaeda to Hezbollah...
...When asked whether he was worried about Fritz Mon-dale making age an issue in the campaign, the Gipper remarked that, for his part, he pledged not to raise Mondale's youth and inexperience...
...In the same Meet the Press appearance, he mentioned his military service several times, and even said it was a positive force in his life...
...We should respect Kerry, even honor him, for his wartime service...
...Messrs...
...military except the land of the Green Faces (which is why the Marines' morale and performance standards are higher than any of the other regular forces...
...In brief meetings with NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, and with Air Force General Joe Ralston?he supreme allied commander in Europe?dwards apparently came to the conclusion that taking the matter of Saddam Hussein to the UN was the right thing to do...
...Second, too many found it impossible to keep young families together, because of the long deployments overseas for "peacekeeping" missions that seemed pointless...
...think we forgot Rev...
...As intelligence briefings have told Mr...
...During the Clinton years, someone pointe&out to me that the Marines had stopped turning as he passed...
...In leaving the Montpelier state house he apparently has nothing better to do than run for president...
...The Green Faces you find in places such as Camp Pendleton are highly skilled at BS detection...
...We can be confident that, as CINC, all seven would regard the military much as Mr...
...About Howard Dean, there's about the same amount of good to say, which ain't much...
...There is much new...
...When the president said as much, Tom Daschle proved him right by performing a Chernobyl-like meltdown on the Senate floor...
...Neither did...
...He voted"yes" in that same year for a provision that would allow women to serve as combat pilots...
...Dean to respond to questions on them...
...His NRA "A" comes from his sensible determination that gun control should not be a federal issue...
...Worse still, the best information is that Saddam has both the intent and capability to supply chemical and biological weapons to terrorists...
...Later he supported mixed-gender training, one of the worst Clinton policies...
...They believe things like "Don't ask, don't tell" were wrong and would reverse them if they could...
...And anyone who would be our president in 2005 will need the character and skills needed to take the fight to the enemy...
...In a highly publicized Senate hearing in April 1971, with the war still hot and heavy, Kerry eloquently condemned America's military for what he called "war crimes committed in Southeast Asia!' He said these were "not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis, with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command...
...Bush came in and quickly gained their respect, the Marine guards began turning again...
...Not a good start...
...And strong as his polls are now, another 9/11 could indeed cost Mr...
...It's never easy to spot good wartime leaders...
...That his Vietnam experience still haunts him does not disqualify him for the presidency...
...All through the Monica mess and the impeachment?oth of which struck deep chords with the military?ephardt was defending him long, loud, and continuously...
...Warming to accept the vice presidential nomination in 2000, Lieberman addressed gay groups and condemned the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, saying that it still allowed discrimination against gays...
...Dick Gephardt, former Vermont governor Howard Dean...
...Being a Senate rookie, Edwards has the advantage of not having been there when the worst of the Clinton deconstruction of the military was taking place...
...William Safire wrote recently that Edwards would be "able to give lessons in slickness to Willie himself...
...Dean, a medical doctor, has been Vermont's governor since 1991, presidingover vital national security assets including Ben & Jerry's ice cream company...
...Jimmy Carter, who botched the Iran hostage crisis, was an Annapolis grad who should have done better...
...One senior Army officer, a warrior from Gulf War I, told me that Kerry is a grade-A case of Vietnam syndrome...
...In more ways than one, that would be beyond him...
...The biggest variables in the 2004 election equation are looming military actions in Iraq and possibly North Korea and the ever-present threat from al-Qaeda of another 9/11...
...To do that, the commander in chief can't be just any shmoozing pol—he has to be a leader who inspires trust and confidence in the troops, and will use them only in causes the leader himself believes in...
...My friend Oliver North put it best when he said, "President Bush is revered by the soldiers, sailors, and airmen I talk to every week...
...I don't know...
...We learned the meaning of free- fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of Orientals . . . We fought using weapons against those people which I do not believe this country would dream of using were we fighting in the European theater...
...Kerry opposes missile defense and has voted against a proposed Constitutional amendment to prohibit desecration of the flag...
...The My Lai massacre tore this country apart...
...What or how they might do better is of course unexplained...
...Were we at peace, his candidacy could pose a credible alternative to George Bush...
...Now, it's up to Hussein what happens next," he said...
...One of my ex-SEAL pals was a sniper in Somalia...
...Only the Marines refused to be subjected to the Clinton experiments and had the courage to get Congress to back them up...
...Now they smell it every time Kerry speaks, because Kerry has never withdrawn or apologized for his libels...
...But they can't...
...In a Senate speech, Graham said that, "I fear that elevating Saddam Hussein to our nation's number-one enemy poses risks we have not fully considered...
...Kerry opposes the death penalty for ordinary criminals, but supports it for terrorists?e wants his share of the front page...
...As the Clinton era proved, our warriors will go where ordered and do their best, even in operations they don't believe in, even for a president they think holds them in contempt...
...For Graham to say that taking out Saddam is divorced from and detrimental to the war against terror is a knowing falsehood...
...His experience in foreign and military affairs is precisely zero...
...Whoever is president in 2005 will have to call upon our soldiers, sailors, and airmen to make extraordinary sacrifices—not just to risk their lives, but to leave families and homes behind, in a war that can threaten them as directly as anyone on the battlefield...
...We saw America lose her sense of morality as she accepted very coolly a My Lai and refused to give up the image of American soldiers who hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum...
...He quit to raise his family, and he's doing a great job of it...
...Those who do, in their late twenties and early thirties, have experiences that make deep impressions, and stay with them for the rest of their lives...
...He condemned American soldiers not only for war crimes, but for racism...
...Perhaps...
...When Kerry left the Navy he joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War...
...It shouldn't come up as long as our troops are in harm's way...
...4) UN control of U.S...
...Funny enough, when Mr...
...He supports the International Criminal Court, aimed squarely at the U.S...
...Needless to say, the Democrats are positioning themselves to take political advantage...
...In Mozambique, Somalia, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and even East Timor, Clinton sent U.S...
...perfect display of the Democrats' unserious approach to national defense...
...John Kennedy was such a man, but John Kerry is not...
...Second, go after regimes that seek chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons . I am concerned that a war with Saddam Hussein would be waged to the exclusion of?nd possible detriment to?he war on terrorism...
...From his track record, we can't expect much from Gov...
...By joining in Clinton's disgusting maneuver, Gephardt disqualified himself from ever being CINC, especially in wartime...
...war in 140 years not confined to foreign battlefields...
...And those who are doing it never get to see their homes, wives, or children...
...T he usual liberal and conservative score sheets—the ACLU, The American Conservative Union, League of Conservation Voters—don't ask much (and don't tell us anything about Dean, who has never served in Congress...
...But we don't need Lloyd Bentsen to tell us that Kerry is another JFK in initials only...
...Bush on homeland security, Osama bin Laden's escape from U.S...
...Among the seven, he appears the most likely to be able to lead us in war...
...I concur with [President Bush's] ranking of our priority targets: First, shut down terrorist camps...
...But for six months, Lieberman and the others obstructed the bill over the issue of union jobs in the federal government...
...Like Kerry and Lieberman, Dick Gephardt was an active participant in the Clinton era's campaigns to cut military spending far below bare-bones requirements, while at the same time straining both men and material with a shopping cart full of new international operations...
...Edwards is his slickness...
...His war scarred opportunism, and liberal purity do...
...He voted against the 1991 Gulf War resolution?hen Saddam already occupied Kuwait?ut voted for the 2002 resolution, even though he said the threat of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction isn't imminent enough to go to war over...
...They did so for two reasons...
...troops...
...The current CINC measures up to that standard...
...The military's distrust of Kerry is a combination of Vietnam-era scars and his support for almost all of the Clintonoid social experimentation...
...Integrity...
...It's the war, stupid, and anyone who doesn't get that won't win...
...People for the American Way?orman Lear's hyper-lib group?says he voted their way on eleven of the thirteen issues they care about...
...Sometimes, he went one better...
...Kerry and Lieberman voted for co-ed basic training twice in 1998, helping kill a House provision?assed over Gephardt's opposition?hat would have ended that particular brand of nonsense...
...What he would do with?nd to?he military just isn't something he's talked about...
...But we must not trust him to lead us?nd the world?o victory in this war...
...ht...
...From 1993 to 1998, he voted "yes" on a host of Clinton policies, among them co-ed basic training and housing for enlisted troops...
...Kerry would be a disaster as a commander in chief, because he would never trust the military, and they could never trust him...
...Then again, politics is politics, and they may see him as someone who is trainable...
...So except in the very short term, our troops don't have to serve a president for whom they feel only disrespect and distrust—Bill Clinton, for instance...
...him deeply, perhaps too deeply for his mind to ever heal...
...But that's a relative ranking...
...He also released a statement asking to postpone the impeachment for as long as Mr...
...He also voted in favor of Clinton's military adventurism and opposed a measurethat would have brought American troops back from Somalia months before the "Blackhawk Down" disaster...
...The Department of Homeland Security was in fact Joe Lieberman's idea...
...First, Clinton's social experimentation with the military—policy changes on gays and on women in combat are the most obvious...
...military...
...After four hours in Afghanistan last winter, he proclaimed it a place that North Carolinians would want to spend money to rebuild...
...In his judgment, Kerry is "too traumatized by the lost war to cope with any other war under any circumstances!' A former Navy SEAL told me he thinks Kerry is an opportunist...
...Constitution...
...But its definitions of war crimes are expansive, including things such as "environmental crimes," defined as intentionally damaging the environment more than needed to perform a mission...
...troops to risk their lives?nd often lose them?here no discernible U.S...
...There is less to say about the veterans of Capitol Hill...
...forces, the ouster of Saddam Hussein, and any other defense-related failure, real or otherwise...
...And now Kerry wants to use the past he was once ashamed of to propel him to the presidency...
...5) endless "peacekeeping," and the strain that put on families...
...Bush the election...
...The whole generation he fought with so bravely in Vietnam remembers him not for his heroism, but for his condemnations of them...
...Most, but not all, learned quickly...
...Most damagingly, Gephardt carries the label of die-hard Clinton defender...
...Many of the best—Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt—weren't farm-team Caesars, waiting to be called up to the major leagues...
...Only the Marines (God bless 'em) stood fast and refused to lower their standards...
...Clinton did, without the respect it needs to feel from its top commander...
...In a joint statement with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, also aimed at delaying the House vote, Gephardt said, "Make no mistake that despite domestic political differences in the United States, the American people and Congress stand firmly behind the defense of our nation's vital interests...
...The most unsuccessful—Lyndon Johnson—was n't obviously unfit...
...Their creed is, "Spend my life if you have to, but don't waste it...
...Gephardt immediately called for a postponement of the House impeachment vote?hen scheduled for December 18...
...Because we know the effect the Clinton policies had on the military, their involvement in the Clinton agenda is a good gauge of what they might do in the job, and how they would be regarded by the troops...
...blot the military cannot overlook...
...But can he learn quickly enough to deal with fast, hot wars...
...Support for the ICC is a big strike against Mr...
...Even focusing on defense and international issues doesn't really help, because the Dems have marched in lockstep on everything from ballistic missile defense to coddling Kofi Annan...
...But unlike Clinton, he is not complex at all...
...And he's a staunch defender of "peacekeeping," who back in 1994 told Republicans they "should be ashamed" for opposing Clinton's idea of sending troops into Haiti...
...William Caney, the commander of the unit involved, was court-martialed for it...
...His disdain for the military, his (hiving Kerry's testimony lingers, a shouted libel that hangs in the air...
...Their field is already crowded with wannabe commanders in chief: Senators Kerry, Lieberman, Edwards, and Graham, Rep...
...His job as Democratic leader required him to...
...If Graham were to give serious thought to his earlier statements about Iraq?specially that Iraq and the war on terror are not connected?nd if he were to expound some serious analysis of his own, he could regain his credibility and become a leader the military could look up to...
...Which means he shouldn't be president...
...Announcing his presidential bid on Meet the Press, Kerry said he still suffers from nightmares about Vietnam...
...Saddam may soon be history, but radical Islam's terror machine is the tougher target...
...During the Cold War, we had the luxury of allowing presidents on-the-job training time...
...Kerry wants the military to think he's complex, perhaps a little confused, but someone with whom they can work...
...So it is with John Kerry...
...Bush—even call for his impeachment—for failing to prevent it...
...Maple-flavored Hillarycare...
...Meanwhile, the opportunism keeps coming up...
...President Bush's service as a Texas Air National Guard pilot pales in comparison to Kerry's combat experience in Vietnam, for which he received not only a Silver Star, but a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts...
...Lieberman's own track record in the Senate gives no reason to doubt his sincerity...
...Clinton...
...The other issue with Mr...
...To rate the would-be CINCs, we have to invent a new scoring system, one that measures how well they have demonstrated their respect for and belief in the troops...
Vol. 36 • January 2003 • No. 1
