Interesting read ...

... over at Mark Shea's. He reported on a Dick Cheney hullabaloo yesterday as well, and it gets interesting in the comment section. Here is a comment by a reader named Sean O'Kane:

A further problem with Cheney's "tough guy" stance is that when he was a young man he went to great lengths to avoid serving in the armed forces during the Vietnam war. Cheney fully supported the Vietnam war yet he sought 5 deferments to avoid the fighting because he "had other priorities." He was content to let others do the dying & dirty work. I find his "tough" stance to be very hollow and hypocritical.

Unfortunately, his experience was the norm among top Bush adm people. The notable exception was Colin Powell had expressed the most caution about going into Irag. Powell served in Vietnam.

Being President of the United States calls for an individual to wear many hats. He has to make sure the country is safe and secure from threats, has a strong economy, sound social policies, and that the citizens are happy, healthy, and productive. There is a lot more to it, and I know that I'm probably overlooking a great many things but I think that only further supports my point that whoever takes on the position of President has to have a wide range of experiences and knowledge.

Washington D.C. has become a place, at least it seems that way to me, where politics is the fabled perpetual motion machine. It doesn't need anything but itself to run. To hell with economics, to hell with sound military policy, to hell with medical health care experience. All they need to know is how to wiggle out of their fumbles and scandals come election time, and how to bring home the bacon to fund projects which really only impact a few people in their districts but have a nice dollar value on the bottom line.

It also points out to me that the populace is naive at best, stupid more likely, and downright apathetic at worst. Instead of clamoring for individuals experienced in things outside of how to perform the perfect "back stab" or "reach around", we continue to elect people, seemingly for life, who continue to flush this country down the toilet (I'm thinking particularly of people Barney Frank and Chris Dodd). Why didn't Colin Powell run for President? Probably because he didn't want to deal with the backroom crap and negative campaigning, part and parcel of politics. I think that if he could have been allowed to just do the damn job of running the country and not deal with all the whiny pissants who scuttle around the Capital, he could have been convinced to do it.

I guess what this boils down to is that I would prefer someone with actual military experience to run this country. They are, after all, Commander in Chief and a knowledge of what our forces are capable of, how they can be usefully deployed in a way that they are the most effective, not over-extended, or put into a losing situation thanks to politics (notice a trend here with politicians?) would be great. We're not going to get that in this Presidency, we sure as heck didn't get it in the last Presidency (or the one before it). You can think through a situation as much as you like, but sometimes actual experience will prove the most valuable commodity. Right now, I don't see much of that and haven't in a very long time.

Mr. Powell, would you consider running for President?