McGovern praises Canada on Vietnam draft dodgers

[Rose Siding]

CASTLEGAR, British Columbia (Reuters) - George McGovern, who ran for the U.S. presidency on an anti-Vietnam War platform, said on Saturday history will show Canada was right to have sheltered that era's war resisters.

McGovern, who was in Canada to speak to a reunion of Vietnam War draft dodgers, said the Iraq war was also "needless and mistaken," but he said it would be presumptuous of him to say Canada should again provide haven for U.S. deserters.

"I always appreciated the generosity and imagination of Canada... I think history will be on the side of the Canadians," McGovern, 83, said, prior to addressing the event in Castlegar, British Columbia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800724.html

[Vidar]

1. I'll praise both Canada & McGovern on that account.

[Raine]

2. Thumbs Up

to McGovern! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[UTUSN]

3. He might have gotten a few more votes if he had let people know

at the time that he is a WW II veteran.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. In '72? This was very well known.

A decorated fighter pilot, at that.

[UTUSN]

5. I never knew, and it wasn't part of his campaign. That's how CLINTONs

got their reputations for being anti-military, that they made their stuff as McGOVERNites.

The anti-Vietnam/pro-peace/anti-draft movement had a SPECIFIC CONNOTATION of being ANTI-MILITARY. So I submit that his military background would not have fit-in to that campaign, and, IIRC, was not part of it.

BTW, I voted for him and admired him personally, but that strain we have among our Dem candiates, The Most Noble One who Loses, really bugs me. Our system is winner takes all. We INVARIABLY have the more intelligent, more noble, more idealistic, more ethical candidate, but it don't do ANY GOOD if our candidate can't win. I wrote a letter and got a reply, I wish I had kept it. I said how much I admired his integrity, but that the eye-on-the-ball was to BEAT NIXON, and that I was begging him to give the road to anybody who could BEAT NIXON. His reply, whether by staff, appeared to be signed personally, and it said (something like) "I think I understand the issues and that I can win, blah blah." The usual blindness and deafness of a candidate dazzled by his core followers. It's what DUKAKIS said, that when you see FOUR HUNDRED people CHEERING for you at an airport, it certainly is SOMETHING, a personal HIGH-------FOUR HUNDRED when your past life has not had FOUR HUNDRED strangers CHEERING for you PERSONALLY. It's definitely a force for distortion.

Every single person in the 2nd row was a better human in EVERY WAY than the a-holes who WON, but their would-have-been policies are ZIP (because they didn't WIN).

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. In short , it's a lot easier to sell snake oil....

... than castor oil.

Interesting analyis. In addition to being deluded about their electability by the presence of 400 hard core supporters, I think there is a natural tendency to assume that the average voter is finally 'catching up' and seeing thru the smoke and mirrors of the other side.

Wishful thinking, for sure. But I think many 'moderates' have gradually wised-up since, at least, the Reagan era. It's would have been hard to imagine then that a Massachusetts liberal would poll 48% nationally.

So.... hope springs eternal.

[UTUSN]

7. Thanks for the civility. I've gotten scalded badly for these views.n/t

[Hand]

8. Not to split hairs, but...

McGovern was a bomber pilot--which was a MUCH more dangerous job. Slow moving large target travelling in a group with a bunch of similar sitting ducks; not many actually completed their tour of duty. :patriot:

[Lisa]

9. and props to Castlegar for hosting ...

People in Nelson, B.C., received tons of hate mail from the States (sent by supporters of guess which political party and president?) after they announced their intention to host a war resisters reunion.


Canadians are trying to change the law, to allow this new generation of resisters to stay. (Aside from the moral obligation ... I must say that Canada gained doctors, lawyers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and skilled tradespeople the last time this happened. And with our decreasing birthrate, welcoming in a new batch of young people would likely create even more positive economic effects than it did 3 decades ago, when our baby boom was still going.)

http://www.resisters.ca/index_en.html