Barack Obama wished to join the military but the Vietnam war's end cooled his ardor?

By Ed Lasky

During a nationally televised news program today, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Barack Obama disclosed he once considered serving in the military. This is a very transparent move to bolster his national security credentials and occurred the day after a release of a Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner poll that showed a widening credibility gap that the Democratic Party has with the voters over national security issues.

Obama is also running against John McCain, whose compelling personal story derives, in part, from being an heir to a long line of sailors who defended America, and from his own military service during the Vietnam War. McCain also movingly described the ennobling experience of having been a prisoner of war for years during the Vietnam war-an experience that changed his life and imbued him with a sense of love for his nation that overcame his own youthful ego.

Barack Obama has received a huge amount of support from groups such as MoveOn. Org who have made ridiculing our military a campaign theme (recall the General Betray Us ads?). Obama has also promised to eviscerate leading edge defense programs.

Is the Barack Obam campaign so desperate that Obama has to resort to such a transparent claim that is incapable of verification? Did he write about this ardor in his two autobiographies? If so, that would be news to many people.

Barack Obama:

"I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.

"And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."

The logic exactly is ... what?

He had the desire to sign up for military service when the Vietnam War was raging but when the war ended so did his desire to serve.

When the war ended, so did his ardor to fight?

That sounds like a war-mongerer to me.

Are his followers aware of this aspect of his biography?

Did he consider becoming a mercenary?

Where does one go with such a transparent pander? With such loopy logic?

Update -- D.M. Giangreco adds:

"I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point."

What a brainless comment. In 1979, the bulk of US forces had been gone from the country for nearly a decade.