Much has been said and written about Hillary Clinton's hallucination of her courage under fire in Bosnia and, as recent polls have shown, she has paid a price with the voting public. Less has been said about a high-profile Obama supporter's recent tapestry of lies. Hillary was trying to puff up her combat credentials, but West Virginia Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV weaved his fictitious and malicious web in a vile attempt to tear down John McCain's.
While campaigning for Obama, Rockefeller climbed deep into the gutter and spewed, "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."
Leave aside all the psycho-babble about too much time with the Park Avenue nannies and not enough love from mommy that surely is at the root of Rockefeller's anger, let's look at the facts. In the late 1960's , U.S. Navy pilot's were not dropping laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. If you flew too high through a hot zone, you were sure to take a Soviet made heat-seeking missile right up your A-4! Cmdr. John McCain and his fellow Navy pilots were often required to enter into the target area not much higher than the tree tops in order to avoid detection by North Vietnamese (NVA) anti-aircraft batteries. Then, in a stunning and difficult maneuver, they would pop-up in altitude and invert their jets. Absorbing multiple g-forces, the pilot had to acquire visual contact with his target upside-down. As the target was acquired, he had to roll his jet over and dive down toward the target. One could say, McCain had to play chicken with mother earth. Once the bombs were released, the pilot had to pull-up and race out of the blast area to avoid being blown up by his own bombs.
As for not knowing how bombing affects "the lives of people" on the ground - uh, let's just say that P.O.W. John McCain was forced to experience what life-long politician John Rockefeller might understand as the ultimate "focus group". McCain was shot down and severely wounded. The "focus group" captured him alive and set about beating and stabbing him to death, but for the intervention of the NVA soldiers who wanted the pilot alive so they could torture him for another five and a half years. I think McCain "got into those issues" of "what happened on the ground" up close and personally.
Sen. Rockefeller was forced to apologize and the Obama campaign issued a press release disassociating its candidate from the West Virginian's bile. Of course, John McCain forgave his senate colleague because that is the kind of guy he is - the kind of guy America needs in the White House.
Tom Liddy lives in Chandler and served as a U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer from 1986-'89.
