New Hampshire: The Real FactsClark Questions the Value of McCain's Service
Clark Questions the Value of McCain's Service
McCain and Obama Jump to Defend War Record
By DAVID WRIGHT
June 30, 2008
To this day, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., can't raise his arms above his shoulders because of injuries he suffered serving his country.
Republican nominee fires back at attacks on his Vietnam War record.Shot down on a combat mission in Vietnam, McCain was badly injured and tortured relentlessly for five and a half years in a POW camp. That experience shaped the core of his character. Had he not been through it, he might not be a candidate for president.
That's why comments made Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation" by an Obama supporter have kicked up a hornet's nest. Gen. Wesley Clark, Ret., a former Vietnam vet himself, said McCain had been "a hero" to him during the war years, but that his service is not something that, in itself, means he should be president.
"I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war," Clark told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer.
But then came the comments that got everyone so riled up.
"He hasn't held executive responsibility," he said. "That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded -- that wasn't a wartime squadron."
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