McCain could be commander in chief

This year voters may be casting the most significant vote in their lifetime. Future generations may look back at this contentious election as a turning point in American history.

The United States is engaged in asymmetrical warfare on two foreign battlefields against a relentless fanatical enemy that opposes freedom and democracy. Only one presidential candidate recognizes that this is the "transcendent issue of our time" and talks about "victory." If we fail to extinguish the terrorist flame represented by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq, the consequences would be a wider conflagration.

Our military commander, Gen. David Petraeus, who is the architect of our successful counterinsurgency strategy, has identified Iraq as the central front in the war on terror, but cautions that the situation there is tenuous and any gains could be reversed.

Only one candidate had the vision to promote the "surge" strategy when the war in Iraq was going badly and has the necessary military background to be a successful commander in chief. Only one candidate has actually served in the military and knows intimately the sacrifices that our brave troops are making.

That candidate is the honorable 72-year-old Sen. John McCain, who will not break faith with the troops who have placed their lives on the line for freedom as he has himself. He is a man of action who puts country first in this narcissistic age.

His opponent is the eloquent, charismatic, 47-year-old Sen. Barack Obama, who has cast himself as the agent of change, and is the darling of the mainstream media who never tires of promoting their new Messiah of liberal ideas. Obama's idea of patriotism is redistributing the wealth and showing your patriotism by paying higher taxes to be redistributed again.

Politics is about competing visions of the future and the choice in this election could not be clearer. We can choose between a tested American hero with proven experience and judgment or a mesmerizing speaker of meager accomplishment whose first decision as president would be to turn on his teleprompter. As for me, I'll take a man of action over a man of words anytime.

Tom L. Jones

Pingree Grove