I think it should be mandatory for a presidential canidate or president to serve in the military do you?

Question

we have an amazing military with great men and technology but the problem is the people running it have never been in the military and also many of the people who are running for president. they dont know how it works, how it feels, or what the limits are on it. i think America's military would greatly benefit if people who had at least 4 years military service were the only ones allowed to run and get elected isnt that why Gen. Eisenhower was such a great war time president?

Answer 1

Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces during both World Wars in the 20th Century. Neither of those two gentlemen had ever served in the military. As for the civilian leadership running the military, the previous Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) was severely criticized by certain retired officers of the military, despite his having been a fighter pilot.
Dwight David Eisenhower wasn't a great wartime President. He was sworn into office in 1952 and a truce was reached in the Korean conflict about one year later. In fact, he had run on a campaign that made a veiled promise that he would end that conflict.
I served under seven commanders-in-chief. All were veterans of the armed forces. But, it made little difference. Four of them in a row were former Navy officers and not one of them had any appreciation of the use of Naval seapower except Kennedy in the Cuban Missile Crisis. And it was Adlai Stevenson who came up with the idea of the naval quarantine of Cuba.

Answer 2

I oppose making military service a mandatory qualification for any political office including the Presidency. That said military service is a plus factor if the person's experiences in the military were of the right kind involving leadership, accomplishments, and self-sacrifice. The performance of military duties is a highly honorable act if the reasons for serving were indeed honorable. I compare McCaine's and John Kerry's service against Bush43's service in the Texas Air national Guard and conclude Bush 43 was a spoiled Vietnam draft dodger protected by daddy Bush41. The kind of conditions of service to the country is what matters, if only the gutless corporate news media would tell us the truth.

PS off-topic sidenote: I hope former CBS anchorman Dan Rather from Brazoria, Texas wins his lawsuit against CBS and CEO Fred Silverman. He told the truth about Bush43 and he was crucified for it!

Also I would never vote for any Blackwater mercenary even if he was a decorated military hero.

IKe was a great President and a statesman. He was an honorable President and he said and did things to be admired and imitated. He was part of my Dad's generation but I have studied up on him as should everyone. JFK, who followed was also a great President and his experiences as a PT 109 Boat Captain were really admirable.

Answer 3

No, I don't - the military lifestyle isn't for everyone and that shouldn't preclude anyone from being President. There's more to being President than being Commander in Chief, and there's no guarantee that being in the military will make you a great wartime president (Look at LBJ).

But I do think that those leaders who haven't served in the military should be humble enough to admit what they don't know and seek advice from those better qualified. And we should take a good long look at what the candidate has done for the country before we vote them in.

Answer 4

This is similar to denouncing the opinions of people who did not serve in the military; and suggests that civilians have no right to speak about matters of war.

I did not serve; however nearly all my ancestors did in every war this nation ever fought, and they did so that I could retain my rights, even as a civilian.

If this suggestion came to pass, I doubt it would stop at the Presidency, but would spread to all levels of leadership, thence to free speech. At that time, I would then be eligible again to run for President, because by then, I would have taken up arms. And I would not be alone.

Answer 5

While I was in the Army and a vet of Iraq, I do not think so. Government should be open to all, except felons. While military service does help, there has been a great many world leader who never served yet where great wartime leaders.

Answer 6

No Way ! The US Government must be ran like a Business. Military Men have not always made Great Presidents and besides you can't run the Government like the Military. They are 2 completely different organizations !

Answer 7

Yes it the unique role of the president to act as Commander in Chief. As such they should have some clue as to what goes on day to day in the military and its just logical how can you order some one to do something you have not been willing to do.

Answer 8

I agree.
But Eisenhower came in at the end of Korea. And advised Kennedy NOT to get involved in Vietnam. Not to take away the greatness of Eisenhower.

I also think all congress and senators need to have served as well.

Answer 9

IMHO in straightforward terms, it supplies that candidate somewhat extra of a real photograph of conflict and perception into being Commander in chief of the army. Obama supporters, please evaluate this. even with the undeniable fact that I disagree on many factors with McCain, understand that he became a POW tortured on a regular basis for 5 years. He SURVIVED! specific he walks humorous and he looks somewhat overwhelmed yet do any of you have any concept what form of power it took to no longer crumple and ruin into products? To get in that have. to come back decrease back to the U. S. and opt to commit his life to public service after the horrors he observed in Nam? how a lot of you easily have faith that some college boy who became given a Harvard education and reaps the advantages of u.s. with out working relatively perplexing for it, appreciates and is conscious with the perception McCain has, the horrors of conflict? how a lot of you easily think of Obama might proceed to exist 5 years as a POW? McCain never suggested he might make larger the conflict one hundred years. He became thoroughly misquoted. He suggested he might leave the troops there for a one hundred years if needed if our troops weren't getting shot at on a regular basis. undergo in innovations that WWII has been over for fifty+ years and troops are nonetheless in Germany. We nonetheless have troops in Korea. We nonetheless have troops in Cuba and a great form of places. that's what he meant and it relatively is strictly what he suggested. For me, the reality that McCain served and is conscious after having experienced head on the horrors of conflict, tells me the alternative to maintain our boys there is not any longer some thing he's taking gently. The schoolboy, does not understand jack approximately something different than whining approximately slavery and oppression and how he hasn't gotten his due. he's no longer in high-quality condition to steer our troops. And he's conscious little approximately it. the reality that McCain has that plenty inner grit, makes me somewhat extra gentle that he may be the single that could handle the 3am call so plenty extra effective than some neophyte with a mansion in Hyde Park Chicago offered by skill of now convicted felon, Tony Rezko.

Answer 10

No, I dont think it should be a requirement. FDR Never served, and he did know how to use the Military to defeat Both Japan & Germany....