McCain's war record is under virtual fire. Politco reports that in addition to Wesley Clark's comments last week that others are questioning the presumptive Republican nominee's service.
"But having served as a fighter pilot — and I know my experience as a company commander in Vietnam — that doesn’t prepare you to be commander in chief in terms of dealing with the national strategic issues that are involved." - Clark
Presumably retired Gen. Clark would not claim that his war service was impediment to serving as commander in chief.
The New York Times claims that McCain signed a war crimes confession after four days of torture. However, the prisoner of war responded to this torture with defiance and provocation that was visible to other prisoners. At the same time, McCain "urged that any military survival training should include lessons in what he called 'the necessity to forgive.'"
These panicked attacks appear to reflect poorly on the attackers.
There are more than 1400 fires buring in Northern California, with nearly 20,000 people deployed to fight them. The fires were sparked by an unprecedented lighting storm earlier last week. The cause of increased wildfires in California has been variously attributed to prolific non-native weeds, global warming, a recent drought, and absolute fire suppression policy.
Smokey the Bear, famous spokesbear for fire prevention, is a controversial figure that advocated this policy of absolute fire suppression. Unfortunately, this results in a buildup of fuel in fire-adapted ecosystems.
Bush signed a $162 billion war spending bill today. If the war were to end tomorrow, this would bring our expenses in the Iraq war up to 2 or 3 trillion dollars, depending on cost of lost equipment and health care of the wounded. The total US debt is quickly approaching $10 trillion, and the GDP is approximately $15 trillion.
The USS Cole was bombed in the port of Aden on Oct 12 2000. Nearly 8 years later the Pentagon has announced charges against Guantanamo prisoner Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Last year al-Nashiri claimed he only confessed to the crime under torture by US interrogators. The CIA has banned waterboarding in 2006.
